The Tower 2022

Page 80

Arturo

Alessandra Benitez

I was born at night My first memory of my mother’s face Drops of honey on her forehead Love on her cheeks Her milky skin red as a siren While she held me tightly I grew up untroubled Chasing my brothers around the house My mother cooking That sweet Menudo smell forever into my heart Happiness came when I met my wife Working at a bank Pools of honey in her eyes that saw through my flirt Her childlike laughter reminded me of home I was blessed when my first daughter was born Constellations of freckles dressing up her face With honey-colored locks and a warrior’s attitude Like her grandmother But with her mother’s laugh inside her Yet I was trapped for years After that first sip of beer (It looked like honey) Missing grandkids’ birthdays Playdates and heartbreaks I had been clean for a year When the sand of the hourglass ran out On that dreadful dawn

78

I was born at night And I died at night


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Ahrenholz 1 | Simone Traband | Visual Art

14min
pages 94-104

“Lion Hair” | Annie Zheng | Nonfiction

5min
pages 87-88

“Shrike” | Jasmine Snow | Poetry

1min
pages 92-93

“Ode to Leaving” | Katharine Anderson | Poetry

0
page 86

Me, Me, and Me | Hyunyoung Cho | Visual Art

4min
pages 89-90

Jelly Brain | Carina Lopez Segura | Visual Art

3min
pages 84-85

From Their Eyes | Samantha Bergren | Visual Art

0
page 83

“Chronicling Chronic Pain” | Marley Richmond | Nonfiction

2min
page 82

Walls and Reflections | Sage Caballero | Visual Art

3min
pages 69-70

“Arturo” | Alessandra Benitez | Poetry

0
page 80

“Graveyard Dirt” | Katharine Anderson | Poetry

1min
pages 78-79

“Writer’s Block” | Trinity V. Fritz Lawrence | Fiction

4min
pages 73-74

Working with (Coral Under the Sun) | Stefanie Amundsen | Visual Art

3min
pages 75-76

“The Caves Beneath Walter Library” | Mustapha Jallow | Poetry

0
page 77

“Seasons, or, Grief Underwater” | Laurel Reynolds | Poetry

0
page 71

“Letter of Termination” | Cole Normandin-Parker | Nonfiction

2min
pages 66-67

“The Modern Tantalus” | Max Pritchard | Fiction

2min
page 68

“Unviolence” | Amital Shaver | Poetry

1min
page 57

“Mullo*” | Trinity Fritz Lawrence | Poetry

1min
pages 62-63

Bridge | Tong Liao | Visual Art

1min
pages 55-56

“Meditations on Grief” | Simon Harms | Poetry

0
page 61

“portrait of an identity crisis, on the borderline” | Alexis Ma | Nonfiction

6min
pages 52-54

Passing (Kissing Couple) | Ruby Cromer | Visual Art

0
page 51

“Taxidermy, Pointillism, & Growing into My Skin” | Erin Mullen | Poetry

2min
page 49

“Realtor” | Rachel Huberty | Poetry

1min
page 50

“Storge” | Ariana Nguyen | Poetry

0
page 48

Purgatory 2 | Anna Mamie Ross | Visual Art

0
page 43

“COLOSSUS” | Ian Krueger | Fiction

4min
pages 44-46

“x.” | K. Mouton | Poetry

0
page 42

“How to Work at Wrigley Field” | Jane Fenske-Newbart | Nonfiction

3min
pages 35-36

Shape | Hyunyoung Cho | Visual Art

2min
pages 37-39

“The Oakridge Herald, Page 5” | Emma Rasmussen | Poetry

1min
page 31

“Living in Minneapolis” | Simon Harms | Poetry

0
page 33

“A Scrap Metal Scorpion” | Stella Mehlhoff | Fiction

4min
pages 28-29

“Autumn Weather Report” | Brynn Nguyen | Nonfiction

5min
pages 19-20

“Hidden Genesis” | Lum Chi | Poetry

2min
pages 21-22

“Snowflakes in Your Hair” | Mahdi Khamseh | Poetry

1min
pages 15-16

“My Wife” | Nate Johnson | Poetry

0
page 12

“Strawberries Are Made to Mold” | Dani Barber | Poetry

2min
page 24

“Plains” | Mustapha Jallow | Poetry

0
page 17

“Last Tuesday I Stuck My Finger Into the Socket of Nomenclature and Suddenly I Was Mr. Bean.” | Trinity V. Fritz Lawrence | Poetry

1min
page 10

“Delicate” | Morgan Coffeen | Poetry

0
page 14
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