"The blast rattled my teeth and rib cage. It pushed on the air in my lungs. In the time it took for the concussed dust to settle, I worried I’d loosened the grid..."
"When I’ve felt casualty creeping toward me I’ve never reached / for the gospel. Instead perhaps a fire or a dance. In this way / I know I am heretic— a dirtier flavor watching bones and papers..."
"Amass your lumber. Use planks recovered from Great Cottonwood, which stood out near Haystack Rock for all those years and of which pieces can still be found around Furness, Wyoming..."
"Her father likes to tell the story of her beginning, as a blue baby. She has heard it two times before, a memorable magnitude when it comes to her taciturn father..."
Karen An-hwei Lee is the author of Phyla of Joy (Tupelo 2012), Ardor (Tupelo 2008) and In Medias Res (Sarabande 2004). She authored a novel, Sonata in K (Ellipsis 2017).