*Editor’s Note: A version of this story was previously published in Prairie Schooner.

I don’t remember exactly how old I was, maybe nine or ten. The town was abuzz with the talk of “Renuka and her Dance Troupe.” What held my attention was that Renuka was close to my age. I found out from my […]

“Levántate.”

“Huh?”

“Get up,” Mami snapped.

Mami snatched the covers off Lupita and pulled the curtains open. The dawning sun hit Lupita’s brown skin. Mami headed toward the kitchen as Lupita climbed off the bed they shared. Mami’s Café Bustelo wafted from the kitchen into the bedroom. Breakfast was ready.

“Lupe,” Mami called from the […]

Linda hung her fingertips over the side of the paddleboat and touched the top of the water. The lake was cold today. She leaned against her seat and let Edgar paddle.

It was the kind of day when her thoughts collided together and she couldn’t think straight even though she tried to. She felt like […]

They said the big rock came from outer space.

They said one night in the ’70s Auntie Em woke up in a hair net to rumblings. Uncle Sho went out looking, and the boys went too. They said where it sat was where it landed—square center of the biggest macnut orchard on the property. They […]

Tonight, you wear Eva’s clothes.

It’s been five months, and until now, you’ve kept yourself from it, afraid to lose her scent in your sweat. Until now, you called yourself an alchemist; you tried to bottle it.

Your lab coat slips off your shoulders. Tonight, you don’t fold it, don’t roll it to avoid creasing. […]

At the school of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow, we were required to always mind our appearances. We each wore a blue plaid pleated skirt, a shirt with a white Peter Pan collar, a royal blue cardigan, and royal blue knee-high socks. Every morning after the pledge of allegiance, we got down on our knees, […]

Walking to the school’s shuttle bus hand in hand with her father was social suicide. At these times, Mia felt lucky nobody ever paid her any attention. Every day, Mia begged her father to let her take the short walk alone, and every day, he would shake his head in that serious, grim way he […]

A GIRL IS A SOVEREIGN STATE

What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open

– Muriel Rukeyser

1.

We learned English faster
than our parents, their tongues
a muscle too old to bend in new shapes.

Our tongues milk leaden,
we didn’t pray […]

More than anything I was embarrassed that he was my brother. I knew Winston was capable of genuine stupidity. It followed him like a half-witted dog with nothing better to do.

“Your brother called. He got himself arrested,” Mama said.

“What? How?”

“Some kind of drug sting.”

“Is he still in jail?”

“Yeah, Lisa don’t […]

The summer I turned thirteen, I felt tired all the time. My mom figured it was pre-puberty stuff. She sat on my bed and patted my leg beneath the pink floral blanket.

“Your body needs rest to grow into womanhood,” she whispered.

I was the first of four daughters, so Mom hadn’t yet perfected “the […]

BECAUSE LET’S PRETEND WE’RE MARRIED

(Satan’s hiss . . . . )

Senior year business-typing class, first week of school: there is a side conversation Marcella is having with some girl right behind my left ear, & I’m not paying attention, but I do hear this: you know, he ain’t really like that, he’s been […]