Issue 19: July 2023

Dear Readers,

Underwater we are weightless, defying gravity. The rest of the world will hush and blur as light disperses and time slows to a standstill. Suspended, submerged, you are safe inside this watery cocoon, released from your history and everything you used to be. Ripples undulate as beads of breath drift upward to the distant surface: echoes of your solitary descent. Sink deep into the blue abyss, then go even deeper.

Falling doesn’t have to be painful. Falling can mean a fearless plunge into unknown depths, a dreamy escape through liminal space, a chance to sever ties with the patterns of the past. In this summer issue of Cagibi, let us fall together into chilling bay waters, Venusian oceans, cyberspace rabbit holes, and the limitless expanse of alternate realities. Let us be children again, adrift in imagination and what could be. Let us embody the mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, doctors and survivors, maestros and artists who have shaped our lives. Let us stare at the moon and wake early to contemplate the human condition. Let time and space suspend. I’ll see you down there.

Sincerely,
Amy Dupcak

Issue 19

July 2023

Poems

In Search of Venusian Oceans - by Matthew Tavares
Two Poems by Carolyn Oliver - Estuary // Serenade
Honestly, - by Martha Silano
In Translation: Comfort // Komfort - by Georg Amsel, trans. Lake Angela
I Think of Moons - by Juan Pablo Mobili
mothers and time - by Tanya Tuzeo
Two Poems by Charlotte Friedman - Channeling Grace Hartigan // Waking Early
I didn’t know I wanted to be right until I was wrong - by Mari Pack

Short Stories

In Translation: Bedfellows // Posłanie - by Katarzyna Szaulińska, trans. Mark Tardi
Bay Waters - by Marie Biondolillo
Pull - by Linda Barnhart
Eyes From the Wild Sky - by Benjamin Page

Personal Essays

Become the Rabbit Hole - by Daniel Olivieri
A Plane Lands in Hawaii - by Alexandria Searls
Thank You, Maestro - by Darren Chase
How to Keep Time - by Jeffrey Barbieri
Stuff I Have Done to Try to Stop my Alcoholic Husband from Drinking, Not Ordered for Chronology or Efficacy - by Mary Birnbaum

Issue Cover

Adam Courtney, photographer
Sparkman Clark, model

Issue 19.1

Features from Cagibi Express

Postcard From Vancouver (Wednesday, August 30, 2023) - by Siavash Saadlou
Good Little Ohs (Wednesday, August 23, 2023) - by Angela Townsend
Postcard from Athens: Letter to a Thief (Tuesday, August 15, 2023) - by Vimla Sriram