I look out across the limestone gravel street and watch the dust rise up in little wisps and puffs as if the rocks can think. Heat is in my nostrils and covers my face. The sunlight is blinding. August, noon, towering clouds in the sky, full moon shining white just like the sun, everyone dead […]
Opening scene: A man in a grey plastic chair, in a circle of strangers all in the same grey plastic chairs…
I was taking the bus to the liquor store…
When I got back to my apartment I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. There was reflecting water screwed to the wall. How did that get there I wondered. The idea of suicide tripped lightly in my mind. I turned on the sink’s hot water and washed my face and […]
The majority of books and movies about refugees are usually bad. Often they are self-serving, trite, or preachy. Most are too heart-felt with unrealistic characters. Refugees are usually helpless victims and emergency relief workers are do-gooders with overflowing emotions. During a real refugee crisis, particularly if it is related to war, there is usually no […]
On the way out I give Tania money to cover the bill, a goodbye, and see you later. Courtney and I cut a path through the Canadians and make our way down the street. We turn onto the Malecon and in the distance the Hotel Belmar rises up to greet us in all its horrific perfection. […]
THE LETTER RESTS in peripheral vision instead of an envelope. It comes from the side silently like the sound of paper in a mailbox. The friend of a lover delivers it in slow motion through the hot air of a stuffy bureau in a polluted city filled with refugees. Time pushes it along like hands […]
