Issue Four Contents

3 poems
by Maria Alyokhina
2 poems
by Simonas Bernotas
Fiction
by Andriy Bondar
2 poems
by Luis Chaves
Poetry
by Ramón García
2 poems
by Julia Guez
Poetry
by Salgado Maranhão
Photo Essay
by Josip Novakovich
A poem
by Catherine Tice
Fiction
by João Tordo
2 poems
by Samantha Zighelboim
Frogpondia
2 poems
by Simonas Bernotas
translated by Anna Halberstadt
Simonas Bernotas was born in Kaunas in 1993. Now he lives in Vilnius and studies Lithuanian philology and Spanish language at Vilnius University. His poetry has been published in the literary journals Šiaurės Atėnai, Literatūra ir Menas, Metai, and the anthologies Poetry Spring and Slinktys.

Anna Halberstadt has published many works in the field of psychology but has found poetry to be a more adequate and condensed way to expand on the same themes—growing up as a child of Holocaust survivors in a country still struggling with past trauma, living in three countries (Lithuania, Russia, U.S.), and immigration. Her creative work has been published by Alabama Literary Review, Alembic, Amarillo Bay, Atlanta Review, Bluestem, Caliban, Cimarron Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Forge, Good Men Project, Hawaii Pacific Review, Lilith, and elsewhere, and translations of her poems in several Lithuanian journals. Her poetry in Russian was published in the international anthology “Nash Krym” (KRiK, New York) in 2014. Her translations have been published in St.Petersburg Review, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. Her collection of poetry “Vilnius Diary” was published in the Mudfish Individual Poet Series in 2014. Her collection in Russian “Transit” was recently published by West-Consulting, Moscow.

Labyrinth

Bang

Labyrinth

I am living in a labyrinth that I’ve not gotten used to yet
 Streets seize me corridors seize me and spit me out
 Into a place where I have not yet found myself
 Walls get narrower suffocating me
 Tunnels intersect my eyes remain my eyes 
 And they often don’t get it right 
 While reading names it does not matter
 If the print is too fine or writing is familiar
 Yes I have some thread yes I have some crumbs 
 Thread from a cloth of my soul with a hole
 Even if it had been most precious is eaten by moths 
 And no longer wearable I already can see people 
 Whispering to one another 
 The crumbs
 Before even landing on the ground
 Get swallowed by birds and birds get swallowed
 By cats and cats by their shadows 
 I often get lost turn left when I need
 To turn right
 I don’t believe in map directions they are superficial 
 They don’t register changes
 So I stay in the middle of nowhere
 Lost looking at the reflection in a store window
 At the reflection in a car at the reflection
 And no longer getting it
 Which one is more me.

Bang

I was at the wheel of a pink limo in the back seat—a corpse of a mafioso or some other type of jerk with a headshot wound and in the luggage compartment a bunch of green dollar bills I was waiting for you. I was puffing on a cigar releasing snake like circles of smoke the jerk in the back seat blinked moved smiled at me I shuddered wanted to speed up pushed on gas realized it was not worth resisting swallowed one snake it bit me on the tongue I was bleeding it seems the dollar bills blossomed I sensed the bloom from my seat behind me police patrol lights I elegantly pulled out a pistol one bullet left white highway lanes merging not far a red light blinking so bright that it blinded me I crashed into a speeding by me racketeer’s Mers and I died. Oh, if only things had been so simple the cop who had followed me was smeared with doughnut filling right next to his badge I wanted to offer him some cleaning powder but I was dead already and for the dead it’s really hard to talk so he started filling out a protocol omitting to mention the dollar bills then took the gun and shot himself or maybe not how would I know–I was lying on the road all covered with blood among broken glass from the limo windows and still without a doubt. In my head.
Simonas Bernotas was born in Kaunas in 1993. Now he lives in Vilnius and studies Lithuanian philology and Spanish language at Vilnius University. His poetry has been published in the literary journals Šiaurės Atėnai, Literatūra ir Menas, Metai, and the anthologies Poetry Spring and Slinktys.

Anna Halberstadt has published many works in the field of psychology but has found poetry to be a more adequate and condensed way to expand on the same themes—growing up as a child of Holocaust survivors in a country still struggling with past trauma, living in three countries (Lithuania, Russia, U.S.), and immigration. Her creative work has been published by Alabama Literary Review, Alembic, Amarillo Bay, Atlanta Review, Bluestem, Caliban, Cimarron Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, Forge, Good Men Project, Hawaii Pacific Review, Lilith, and elsewhere, and translations of her poems in several Lithuanian journals. Her poetry in Russian was published in the international anthology “Nash Krym” (KRiK, New York) in 2014. Her translations have been published in St.Petersburg Review, Quarterly West, and elsewhere. Her collection of poetry “Vilnius Diary” was published in the Mudfish Individual Poet Series in 2014. Her collection in Russian “Transit” was recently published by West-Consulting, Moscow.