Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Chiwenite OnyekweluJune 30, 2022

(for Ibrahim)

Even birds know how beauty
begins at the
           tiny suture between two wings.

But they know nothing about
this fall. We
           slid our bodies down the dune,

the world crumpling into dust
beneath our
           skins. How wildly holy we were,

you and I, sightseeing beyond
this crucifix
           soft on my chest and the almond-

shapedtasbih drooping from yours.
Now, vastness
           shadows what remains on those

sidewalks each time we unlearned
the familiar route
           to school, sang “baami” to tease

the girls, or basined a stray sheep
through
           a farmland devoured by brushfire.

At fourteen, I recall my father
gripping a boy
           trying to teach him the origin

of names. AbrahamandIbrahim–
my father says,
           can’t you seethere are too many

war-torn countries between
both names?

           So, I mistake your glint. I mistake

my friend for a gun, and he
offers to smuggle
           me out of harm. And this is where

the fall begins, you and I
tumbling from all
           that height, an emptiness forming

right at the spot
where two shoulders once merged as one.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the French archbishop of Chambéry, Thibault Verny, as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He succeeds Cardinal Seán O’Malley, 81, the emeritus archbishop of Boston.
Gerard O’ConnellJuly 05, 2025
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with other members of the House July 3, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington after final passage of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
“Deep cuts” to SNAP and Medicaid will “inflict real suffering on these families…. SNAP and Medicaid are not luxuries, they are lifelines for millions of children across our country.”
Kevin ClarkeJuly 03, 2025
It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children.
The Vatican has named the judges that will preside over the trial of disgraced Father Marko Rupnik.