The Dog
I went to the dog park because it was one of the last places with surefire signs of life. Not just magnificent canines trotting about, but children laughing,...
Issue 8: Fall 2020
In this edition of eMerge, our writers have provided us with some thought-provoking and insightful prose and poetry. We do hope you will enjoy our newly...
Why Poetry
Because it is born of itself parthenogenically.Because of its innate nonchalance.Because its orography is a cordillera of designation, assurance and...
Better Together Fruit Tart
This is my Better Together Fruit Tart. What makes it special is the variety of fruit in it, which got me to thinking about LIFE. And how together, we are...
The Other Poet
The peasant shirt or the bow tie?Faded jeans or tattered? Sneakers pushing it?So many decisionsIt goes to credibility, right?I should be alone with my penbut...
Dien Cai Dau
(The following is an excerpt from the best selling novel, Boot: A Sorta Novel of Vietnam. The boxing match, and the subsequent Captain's Mast (disciplinary...
Eating Phở with my Grandpa
For my grandfather,killed in 1954 in the Land Reform Movement of North VietnamA Man Knocked at the door of my dreamand poked his mud-smeared face through the...
We Were Warriors --- Hell Bent
When baby boy Cole was born with a serious birth defect, I, as his grandma, became part of a team that spent a year nursing him through a series of surgeries...
God Forgot
God forgot to create uswith masksPPE to bindour skeletonsas the blood sprays and stickslike sap to ourfingernails, ourknuckles, fistsbound, yet readyfor the...
Loving Her
She can love youfrom the right sideor from the left sideor from above Thereis no downsideto loving her
Another Take
Some called it the worst week ever. It was the one that highlighted the knee-hold murder of a young man in Minneapolis, and also one in which a US President...
The Wonders of the Woods
I often wonder which path to take.I leave home with the black dog in the back seatDriving to a trail where she can run and sniff.This day I tried one...
I Give What Art Demands
For Artist Vance KirklandEach morning, I slip my body into strapsswinging from my studio’s ceiling. The firstsupports my chest, another cups the waist,a...
True Heroes
As she settled uncomfortablyOn the linoleum floorTired beyond wordsI gave an oath! She thoughtShe had not seen her children in weeksIn fear of spreading...
Hébéphrénique
My 22nd Birthday was at a funeral.A Great-Uncle’s death, he left behind some land.I was washing to Winter’s shore from tides of psychosisand wept in the car...
Alexa
“Alexa good morning”Good morning it’s read a book day so keep that in mind and enjoy a good book whether it’s an old favorite or something new.“Alexa are you...
She Always Looks Brand New No Matter How Old She Gets
Like the pristine face of brand-new dollthat rolls off a factory assembly linewith sparkling eyes and kissable lips,she looks as immaculate as the Blessed...
Building the First Kwuda Cabin
(N. Scott Momaday's grandmother shared a Kiowa Creation Myth. They came one by one out of a hollow log and called themselves Kwuda, "coming out.")Forty years...
Without Armature
I have become a womanwho weeps from eyescut like cowrie shells,the lids pulled apart,the tomb between themempty. I have notlashes but small teeth,white and...
An Ordinary Life
She backed through the door, revealing an ordinary kitchen Susan knew was filled with ordinary things.There were ordinary appliances, ordinary kitchen...