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"Aguirre" by Matthew Fertel

K. Kannan | The River

It’s so easy to picture death: not of

               me, but of the girl hanging

sarees on a clothesline. Ignorant to sorrow

               on her terrace. Dusk

swallowing her deft fingers, her mouth

               open like a well--pled

fullness in monsoon
. Glass-eyed bugs

               skating across the surface.

The heatstroke is always gentle, always

               present when I pass her house. The river

rushing with fever. Body leaning closer

               in currents. And sometimes, the girl

edges close to falling, and I cup

               my palms as if to catch the rain

in silvered slits. Once, I prayed

               she grew wings. I showered

jasmine petals on the temple floor

               and nothing happened and

I was sad. I ran along the riverside,

               streetlights unclenching their fists

along my body, practicing a

               new form of silence. I ran past

the house of the girl who might

               have fallen in another life. She had

no wings, so I dreamt of her ribs

               that night, their aching warmth.

Our sweet surrender to the pulsing

               stars slowly dying for us, above

us, nothing behind us but for the river

               unspooling—the river,

our roaming constant, the only god

               who’d dare love us back, the only idol

to damn what we left of ourselves to

​               the waking dawn.


K. Kannan (b. 2008) is a first-generation Indian-American writer. The Editor-in-Chief of Blue Flame Review, a literary magazine publishing science-themed work, she also serves as an editor for Renaissance Review. Her work has previously appeared or is forthcoming from Pidgeonholes, Paper Crane Journal, and Ice Lolly Review, among others, and has been recognized by Write the World.

Matthew Fertel is a Sacramento-based photographer who has worked in the Photography department at Sierra College since 2004. Before that, he was a fine art auction house catalog photographer in San Francisco for over 10 years.

Matthew's current work focuses on capturing the minutiae he encounters in his daily life. He seeks to expose the hidden beauty in the everyday objects that make up the landscape of our existence. Going to the same locations over days, months and years allows him to capture images under different lighting and weather conditions, and to see objects change over long or short periods of time. There is art hidden everywhere if you learn to see it.

Learn more at his w​ebsite and on Instagram.
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