Group Portrait: A Wedding Celebration, by Gillis van Tilborgh
June 8, 2024
The locals, believers of gods, drink tsipouro long into the night // And brag to me about how lucky they were to be born here
By MH Petrus
One recent Sunday, I attended St. Augustine Catholic church in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, close to where I live. This was not typical behavior for me; I had grown disaffected with the Catholic Church through the years, but I liked to dip my toe into its baptismal font, so to speak, on occasion, usually around Easter, to see if I felt closer to God.
My uncle told me turn the soil over // after that we'll lay a sheet over it // everything under it will die, and // we can start again.
By Barun Saha
Those are stygian times when blood & clay plastered on bones melt into lumps // The floor tiles slide across, the many mouths of abyss await