The nation lies in ruins,
but the mountains and rivers remain. –Tu Fu
CHAPTER ONE
New York City, June 4, 2001
Ming Chen, devout believer in very little, had gone to church every June fourth for the last seven years. At first Allison went with him, in fact the whole thing had been her idea. But for the past [...]

[Read more →]

Baraki, Algeria, 1991
When Farid Belkadi woke up, the winter sun sliced through the building’s alleyway and lay on the street in diagonal shapes.
Outside his apartment building, a taxi waited for his grandmother and Aunt Leila. His mother loaded the last suitcase, an oversized blue cardboard case with brass locks, into the trunk.
Farid placed his white [...]

[Read more →]

Queen Eva-Marie always did say every good-bye ain’t gone and every shut-eye ain’t sleep. Nightfall brings a hush over even the nosiest places and that includes the Quarters. A late spring breeze circulates air already too warm and kicks up limerock dust on the edges of Palmer Road. A slice of silver moon illuminates the [...]

[Read more →]

They’ve been waiting for months now, like patients on an organ donor list. Two large icons—one of Christ, the Life Giver, and another, The Mother of God, Directress—sit unfinished in my studio. A few well-meaning students have offered encouragements like, “Oh, they’re almost finished,” and “I love the blue highlights on Christ’s inner [...]

[Read more →]

Animals come after my father dies. Dogs. Cats. Ducks. Geese. A goat. A peacock. They wander to our home several years into his absence, appearing on our doorstep, or catching our eye from feed store cages. Always, we take them in. We line our laundry room floor with bath towels, bed sheets and spare blankets, [...]

[Read more →]