Issue 25 | Fall 2021
Epigenetics
Diti Ronen
Translated by Joanna Chen
1.
I was the wind singing through curtains / a window looking out at the view / washing drying in the cold air. / I folded love / from corner to corner / placing it / in carefully stacked sheets. / All my hope I gathered there. / I stood in the doorway and waited.
2.
In the house / your face is curated / your eyes thump against conjugations of the tongue / dictating the beat / of the heart / the diction of the blood as it pumps through your veins. / A wail becomes a laugh / a groan displaced through the labyrinth of rooms. / Your image is reflected in the mirror that hangs in the hall. / Now I am two which is one.
3.
On the Sabbath morning the house came to a dead halt. / Sealed its apertures / held its breath. / The toys stood in their boxes / the books on the shelves / the cups on hooks / the water in a jug / the rice in a saucepan. / The cracks held themselves in readiness / and no man said a word / nor woman.
4.
Now even the deer have left / their steps in the forest subsiding. / A cold wind is also a voice / and distant music / a man turning over in his sleep / dreaming of home. / Anything is possible. / Music will magnify / wind will waltz / deer will dance at the edge of the valley / their hooves imprinted on the forest floor.
About the Author
Diti Ronen has published twelve full length poetry books in Hebrew, German, French, and other languages. Her poetry has won several awards and she is regularly invited to publish and perform her poetry around the world. Beside her literary work, Dr. Diti Ronen is an academic scholar, a researcher and a lecturer of arts, theatre, and cultural policy.
About the Translator
Joanna Chen is a writer and literary translator whose work has been published in Guernica, Narratively, Mantis, and Asymptote, among other journals. Her full-length literary translations include Less Like a Dove (Shearsman Books), Frayed Light (Wesleyan Poetry Series, finalist in the Jewish National Book Awards), and My Wild Garden: Notes from a Gardener’s Eden (Penguin Random House). She teaches literary translation at the Helicon School of Poetry and writes a column for The Los Angeles Review of Books blog.
Prose
Bomarzo Cecilia Pavón, translated by Jacob Steinberg
Sister in Basement, Manny Again Elsewhere Robert Lopez
Visitations Caroline Fernelius
Solution Linda Morales Caballero, translated by Marko Miletich, PhD
Auditions for Interference Theory Emilee Prado
Life Stories Robert(a) Ruisza Marshall
Out There Daryll Delgado
The Embassy Khalil AbuSharekh
Shaky From Malnutrition Mercury-Marvin Sunderland
Weatherman Gillian Parrish
The Taco Robbers From Last Week Steve Bargdill
Poetry
Epigenetics Diti Ronen, translated by Joanna Chen
i once was a witch Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi
Thralls Kevin McIlvoy
Mine Brian Henry
Catastrophic
marble chunk Shin Yu Pai
shelf life
Rebirth Tamiko Dooley
Before the Jazz Ends Adhimas Prasetyo, translated by Liswindio Apendicaesar
After Jazz Ends
Scent of Wood
Cover Art
Untitled Despy Boutris