8.
If humans were to become extinct tomorrow, plastic, that quintessential human artifact, would remain on Earth for centuries more. See Barbie on our cover, seeking shelter behind a piece of driftwood? Barbie would live on as the Rockaways disappear under rising sea levels. Barbie will remain, alone and naked, but we might not. Barbie is what the next life forms will find as they dig through the layers of trash we leave behind to understand what happened to this planet. What will it say about us?
Issue 8 is filled with birds, rolling greens, and other precious remains of summer as fall comes upon us. Will stories such as these also become a thing of the past? Will readers of this uncertain future come across the word “egg” or “field” or “tree” and wonder, what were those? When the next life form toddlers encounter a paper crane, will they know that it once could fly?
When a sixteen-year-old climate activist is ridiculed and demonized, when democracy is repeatedly mugged by filthy crooks and reality itself is vanishing in front of our very eyes, it does require a daring imagination to project ourselves in a future in which we humans still exist and live on as organic matter, and not just as the plastic relics of our failed visions.
How do we dare?
The Editors.
Issue 8
October 2019
Features
- Poems About Film by Alberto Blanco - by Alberto Blanco, trans. Ronald J. Friis and Maria Bartlett
- A Bit of (Pas de Deux): Translating Jacques Brel - by Michele Herman // Essay & Song Translations
Stories
- Don’t Talk to Me About Sleep - by Charlie Scaturro
- Building Seven - by Dawn Ryan
- Ties - by Elizabeth Genovise
- The Weight of One Egg - by Jessica Olivo
- Venerable - by Logan Ramirez
- The Day Papá Folded Into The Sky - by ME Vera
- In Translation: Up There // Yukarıda - by Muzaffer Kale, trans. Ralph Hubbell
- Estrangement - by Whitley Carpenter
- Prelude to a Housewarming - by Will Clattenburg
Essays
- Are you with me? - by David Stuart MacLean
- Fourteen Stories in the Life of a Tire Saleswoman - by Megan Taylor-DiCenzo
- Paper Cranes - by Susannah B. Mintz
- All On a Bright Day In April - by Traci Skuce
Poems
- Three Poems by Alyssa Mazzarella - At the Farm Stand // Occupation // State Farm for Women
- Two Poems by Christine Jones - Nipple Reconstruction or No Nipple Reconstruction // Early Morning Swim at Ballston Beach
- Evening - by Dominique Russell
- My Brothers Teach Me What It Means to Grow Up Male in West Texas - by Janice Northerns
- Revised Common Liturgy - by Jen Stewart Fueston
- Right Side, Wrong Side - by Lee Ann Dalton
- My grandpa asks me to say Polish things in English - by Marek Kulig
- In Translation: re-flecks, the no not // Rien, le reflet - by Monchoachi, trans. Patricia Hartland
- Garden Renovations - by Nadia Farjami
- In the Parking Lot of the Stop & Shop I Concede to the Afterlife - by Nicole Callihan
- In Translation: Like That Tree // Como ese árbol - by Osvaldo Bossi, trans. Allison A. deFreese
- In Translation: Lithium (The Dance of the Snake) // Lithium (Dansul Şarpelui) - by Ștefan Manasia, trans. Clara Burghelea
- Checkmate - by Wayne Mennecke
Issue Cover
“Rockaway #barbie” photograph by Nadia Belalia.
Issue 8.1
Features from Cagibi Express
- Postcard from Roma (Tuesday, January 7, 2020) - by Margaret Erhart
- Rain of Tears: On the Ground in Reggio Calabria (Thursday, January 2, 2020) - by Michael Cronin
- Jarndunmunha: Postcard from the Outback (Monday, December 30, 2019) - by Nicole R. Zimmerman
- Postcard from a DMV Parking Lot in New York (Thursday, December 19, 2019) - by AM Roselli
- At the End of the Road: Postcard from Wisconsin (Tuesday, December 17, 2019) - by Sarah Cords
- Aileen Cassinetto // The Cagibi Express Interview + Poem (Tuesday, December 3, 2019) - Cagibi interviews Aileen Cassinetto, the Poet Laureate of San Mateo County and publisher of Paloma Press
- Looking for Anne: Postcard from Prince Edward Island (Wednesday, November 13, 2019) - by Julie A. Sellers
Prefer to Dive In at Random?
A cagibi is a place where things are often gathered pell-mell, which comes from the French word pêle-mêle, a state of affairs characterized by the random mixing of things, a chaotic state of affairs that also opens the door to unexpected discovery. In that spirit, while this page lists the contents alphabetically by the contributor’s first name, here also is a separate list in random order, to encourage you to skip around the contents of Cagibi Issue 8, to discover a work of prose or poetry you’d like to sink down into. We expect it will stay with you, and we hope you’ll be inspired to share it. Dive in!
ISSN 2643-3273. Copyright © Cagibi Literary LLC.