Christopher Rey Pérez: Snails
& Angel Trench (Exhibition)

Snails

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snails
snails
I love snails
what’s there not to love
about snails?

snails can live on
the line
and when I take
the 63 past
Ma’ale Adumim I
think about
snails
snails

have their own
shells
and they answer to no one
which is wonderful
I always answer
to my LORD
but snails have no
idea about

the sublime
snails are sublime
which cancels
a possible
idea of
the sublime




Angel Trench
(Exhibition)

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I do things when
afraid) (A bougainvillea

after English
class/Shahd is

showing me
her hijab) (I eat

yogurt) (A long
line of

ants cannot be
evil/If

they’re evil
then why

do they like
sugar?


                                                                                          

(...) Even then Antigone’s in Dheishah

There there are black water tanks

                    answer me little ant

Why do you away on the moped?

Is another missile a mammoth?

Will my poulaines be made to/flutter?


                                                                                          

creepy
fireworks
for
the soldier
I am
Ahmad’s reading
lamp
outside an
embarrassing
clothesline
when
a siren goes
off
a car is
a plagiarism of
a run
my pancreas
smells
but how
does it
smoke
like salmon
it is
but
the pink
itself
that terrifies
it is
rosewater
in the year
2012, a bus
blows
up, see
mosquitoes
burst when it’s flexed


                                                                                          

A nun eats the cake of Islam
My duende’s on
reggae

                                                                                           )(

                                                            Cumbia cowboys at the outpost
                                                            Ojalá comes from
                                                                                                    the back of
                                                                                                    the throat

)(

                    Sometimes
                                          I dream of
                                          washing her
                                          with my beak

                                                                                           )(

                    On the table I slice
the bread

)(

                                                            Semitic ponytails

challah
and
clogged

                                                                                           )(

              pores


                                                                                          

                       These are some definitions of the ludic
                                  A date 2 dates 3 figs 4 mice


                                                                                          

                An F-350 is the
border of vision

Qué poco para ti

A spittoon
                    of fingernails
                                        I am
not floss

And Helal and Shahd
and Dima
                    and Sonia?

Slowly call to prayer
starts

Time to smoke inside
buildings

Lip                               sync
a bolero

   You’re not standing
                on my eyelids

You’re      far      away
where the walls are


ISSUE THREE:

ART: Zachary Tate Porter, Jeannie Vanasco

FICTION: Katya Apekina, John Henry Fleming, Lacy Arnett, Claire Harlan Orsi, Chantel Tattoli

NONFICTION: Emily Carr, Nancy Singleton Hachisu, Johanna Stoberock, Steve Wasserman

POETRY: Janelle Adsit, Ryan Bender-Murphy, Monica Berlin & Beth Marzoni, Dan Chelotti, Lisa Ciccarello, Christopher DeWeese, Elisa Gabbert & Kathleen Rooney, Tyler Gobble, Fanny Howe, Lo Kwa Mei-en, Nick Lantz, Matthew Lippman, Aditi Machado, Alice Miller, Marc Paltrineri, Christopher Rey Pérez, Allan Peterson, Jessica Poli, Lynne Potts, Dan Rosenberg, M. C. Rush, Ed Skoog, Cindy St. John, Russel Swensen, Emily Toder, Laurie Saurborn Young

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