Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
VOICE
VOICE By: Sasha Farmer Being gifted with the ability to speak, But being told to shut up left me weak. Day in and day out being seen but not…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Do You Know How Hot It Is Outside?
He spends all his time indoors. He works in an air-conditioned office, in a room well-insulated from the city outside. It’s a room that smells like carpet, Lysol, and coffee….
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Through The Looking Glass
When my dentist friend meets me for after-work drinks I worry he first notices my teeth Still stained from too much coffee He’s thinking, oh, she needs to take care…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
All Happy Weddings Are Not Alike in the Same Way: 500 words
Is it too late in life to write about my wedding in the summer of 65? I felt my moʻopuna needed to know. I’m not sure why it took me…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
4th of July
Summer fireworks at home alone. Independence Day from people. I set fire to the BBQ grill And let butter soaked peaches heat up With melted chocolate on the flesh with…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
The Accident of Age
We haunt yesterday’s bonfires Cozy after days of swimming And miles of nature walks Learned every plant and tree We’d seen for a million years But ignored as passing strangers…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
A Temporary Parting (present/past)
I recognize the boy climbing up the bank on the other side. Turning, he calls to me, over the rush of the river, points to where a waterfall waits, high,…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Snow Monkey: The Present/The Past
Snow Monkey: The Present The night is deep and dark, and I am the only visitor at the outdoor onsen on the hotel’s roof top. Fortunately, there is no wind,…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Cruelty in April
First only green at the edges and on the ground. Then the heat arriving (like an unclocked summer) greens rise and invoke daffodils, crocuses quickly bloom and quickly die from…
Bamboo Shoots Submission for Year of the Rat -- July Contest
Kīpahulu Silence
Fog settling on Hawaiian birds, sharp and trilling between ʻokina, repeating and echoing over searching groans of wild bulls, over boars tearing up matrixes of dense forest roots with spear-edged…