creative writing on environmental justice
Aureliano Segundo ask[ed the Arabs] with his usual informality what mysterious resources they had relied upon so as not to have gone awash in the storm . . . one after the other, from door to door, they returned a crafty smile and a dreamy look, and without any previous consultation they all gave the answer:
“Swimming.”
—Gabriel . . .
For K Phung
My best male friend in college was a fun guy.
Vietnamese—we share the same “middle name”—
Le, although his is Lê and mine Lệ. That extra
dot carried a lot of weight. Lê, an unassuming pear.
My dad insisted 丽 meant beautiful.
My aunt insisted Lì meant crying.
Names get complicated when navigating
three worlds. Consider the mushroom,
not flora, not fauna, . . .
The ruins sitting quiet on the belly
of the earth, the slush of water filling
the bleached street, the mouth of deluge
raising a toast to white hills, and
the farmers’ agony and its harvest basket
of tears, are the bodies of this poem
sickening my inside like a claw.
My wet body, a flotsam at edge
with the drenched cushions
scattered across the void, through
the roil . . .
When Israel finished its retraction of the rights of all immigrants, women, queers, and others, and reduced the Knesset to an advising body for a permanent non-elected executive, when that nation stripped away the rights of the remaining Palestinians, all rights, until they were but animals before the law, the day came when soldiers entered East Jerusalem . . .
The question, as a form, courts: wide-spanning and invitational, it provides the grounds for voicing provisional answers and desires, variously. The works that comprise this issue of Reckoning provoke essential questions for our current historical conjuncture, questions which defy the treacherous narrows of business-as-usual and open instead toward . . .
We’re very excited to announce, for the forthcoming Reckoning 8, editors Knar Gavin and Waverly SM! Read on for their issue-specific submission call.
Reckoning is a journal of creative writing on environmental justice; we’re looking for fiction, creative nonfiction, essays, poetry and art.
For Reckoning 8, we want thinking, writing and art . . .