At the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River
My childhood closet was stuffed
with redheaded baby dolls
named for pieces of the body
that start with R—
Gametes
My cousin floats on her back a few feet away.
She’s the most beautiful thing—
Five years older & mean,
she used to kick me in my sleep.
We lie facedown on the concrete dock
as a hawk circles us.
Skin
We were wrong. It is important to acknowledge that. Wrong, that is, to think, imperiously, that he needed fixing or saving. That is the inherent logic, though, of the multiracial adoptive family, where salvage and repair discourses abound.
MQR Issue 60:2, Spring 2021
Announcing the release of MQR 60:2, Our Emerging Voices Issue Cover art by Eduardo Paolozzi, courtesy of UMMA and Diane Kirkpatrick Table of Contents Forward Khaled Mattawa: Celebrating Our Emerging Writers Fiction Anitha Ahmed: Couplets by Ghalib Samantha Barron: Everybody Wins Anu Kandikuppa: Everything is
Foreword: Celebrating Our Emerging Writers
In the words of Stephanie Glazier, we, having gotten to what seems like a cultural and political impasse, are seeking “something that means / not only sings praise.” And as if responding to the same impulse, Yun Wei tells us that we need to go beyond our familiar routes or roads, we must invent ways of moving and growing that will carry us with them and assure us that “this is not the end.”