This selection, chosen by guest editor Sarah Clark, is from I could die today and live again by Summer Farah (Game Over Books 2023).
A History of Termina
In the mayor’s office, men with money pretend the moon is not falling.
Laborers point to its growing shadow, poets ready their pens—
a violence is not solved without memory.
Lonely children do not cry wolf.
Laborers point to its growing shadow, poets ready their pens.
When the moon chooses its end, who will remember us here?
Lonely children do not cry wolf
while playing in the forest past nightfall, they ask:
when the moon chooses its end, who will remember us here?
They wrote songs to one another, named them for the girls
playing in the forest past nightfall, asking
what happens to lonely children with aching lungs.
They wrote songs to one another, named them for the girls
hidden away in their rooms, lit only by moon.
What happens to lonely children with aching lungs,
who yell at the falling light?
Hidden away in their rooms, lit only by moon,
men with money ignore the children
who yell at the falling light.
If it’s something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!
Men with money ignore the children
with bones growing over their face; children, shrouded in light;
if it’s something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it
Summer Farah is a Palestinian American writer, editor, and zine-maker from California. Her chapbook I could die today and live again (Game Over Books, 2024) explores a childhood corrupted by empire, inspired by The Legend of Zelda. Summer is a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers and the National Book Critics Circle. Her debut full-length collection, The Hungering Years, is forthcoming from Host Publications in 2026. She is calling on you to recommit yourself to the liberation of the Palestinian people each day.
Sarah Clark is a mad crip genderfuck two-spirit enrolled Nanticoke editor, writer, and cultural consultant. They are Editor-in-Chief and Poetry Editor at ANMLY, Editor-in-Chief at ALOCASIA: a journal of queer plant-based writing, and Editor-in-Chief at beestung. They are an editor on the Bettering American Poetry series, and a current Board member and Assistant Editor at Sundress Publications. They have edited folios for publications including the GLITTERBRAIN folio and a folio on Indigenous & Decolonial Futures & Futurisms at ANMLY. Sarah freelances, and has worked with a number of literary and arts publications and organizations, including the Best of the Net anthology, contemptorary, Curious Specimens, #PoetsResist at Glass Poetry, Apogee Journal, Blackbird, the Paris Review, and elsewhere.
