Photo by Valeria Hutter on Unsplash
I Google Cuba like a stranger
Jigsaw Leaves
No other experience has made me feel more base and vulgar than losing my virginity. I didn’t have any pretense about the act beforehand. My mother painted all sexuality as depravity, which could only be lessened by your connection to your partner. If it was with your spouse, it wasn’t (as) lascivious. Tolerable. If it was with a long-term partner, you were meant to feel…
To J., Who Picked Us Up Hitchhiking
Where we stood scared across the highwayfrom the drawn-down lake, my friendhad seen ghosts stepping out of firs. “Bad placeto camp,” you’d said. Told us it was my fly rodthat made you pull over. “Those cliffs are whereall the kids jumped to escape. In the old time. Whenthat lake was still a river.” New little fires on the endsof cedars, you said your son was…
Three Poems by Safa Hijazi
Photo by Ibrahim Guetar on Unsplash
Submissions are open!
Portland Review is now accepting submissions in all genres. Please send us your poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, book reviews, and genre-bending work. The window for submission will close on Monday, November 3, but we may close the submission for a genre early if we reach our cap before the official closing date. At Portland Review, we are looking for writing that is willing to push boundaries…