South Beach

South Beach

“Joe’s Stone Crabs Sign” by Phillip Pessar is licensed under CC BY 2.0 I was sunning on South Beach when a thunderstorm materialized. Lightning struck the top of a lifeguard stand and rain started to pelt me. I sought cover in a grove of trees, but...
Sijo: Just Maple

Sijo: Just Maple

When the days are merely cold,      but nights freeze the maple trees, I bore up far as xylem      to set the spiles, hang the buckets, wait for warmth to move the trees to      donate ichor. Sweet sap flows. Born and raised in New York, James Penha (he/him🌈) has...
Alameda

Alameda

Photo: Sheila Fitzgerald / Shutterstock.com There is water here, somewhere, but not at the end of this street, or the next one, each finding only a barrier of evergreens.         And so I walk ever further into this maze of houses, each reclaimed from history, yards...
Angel Island Ferry

Angel Island Ferry

1. In the boat’s wake:a range of mountains,arching spine of peaks and valleys molded into the pliant sea. The path forward: littered with driftwood. 2. The earth’s anxiety in the liminal spaces: maelstrom of birds, the wind’s long howl, arrhythmic ocean swelling and...
Seville, New Year’s Eve, 2019

Seville, New Year’s Eve, 2019

Photo:  agsaz / Shutterstock.com After my visit to the Royal Alcazar, I stopped at a café and sat outside, relishing the almost-warmth in that last day of December, sipping the thick hot chocolate and dipping fat fingers of churros into it, telling myself it was my...