Category: The Last Word

Writers getting the last word. HFR is invested in elevating art by marginalized groups with this feature.

Three Poems by Aeon Ginsberg

Tending the night of theelection I’m in a cavepouring potions no,I’m pouring Gin andTonics and instead ofdrinking I’m not evendrinking water and Ithink dehydration is aform of self-care in aweird fucked up waywhere I don’t knowhow to handle beingalive until I have toreset myself. drinkwater first and screamlater or scream first until the voice is…
Fiction: Andrew D. Hwang’s “Race to the Finish”

I should never have gotten stuck on the team with Jerry, Race, and Donnybrook. We didn’t know any of the same people, never saw eye to eye. Jerry was an oily creep. Race carried a photographer’s gray scale in his back pocket, pulled it out constantly to judge human worth. Donnybrook was expert at nothing…
Four Poems by Hazem Fahmy

Summer Soundtrack: For Death, Despite Summer beginsand with it the paradeof bodies the earth demands. I drown out death with Imam and Miles Davis. There, the trumpet blared, all noise and glory—melancholic confetti. Here, I sitswinging my legs like a hammer in and out of the wall violently. Look, the camera encroaches: close-up on the…
Two Poems by Kai Coggin

Still (in two parts) I. I find myself lately usingthe word stilllikethere are still flowers,there are still trees,there is still laughter,there is still the silent moon that watches our dark movementsthere are still moments of wonder that can take your breath and turn it magic a lake freezing the sounds it echoes from beneath the changing…
“Daughter’s Lament,” a poem by Candice Kelsey

“The ways in which I am my mother’s daughter are infinite.” ~ Roxane Gay I’m just a blueprint spread across the drafting table like warm butter only I do not melt under your heavy stone palms pressing my corners. Your red pencil a sun dial ready to cast shadows on my body this body…
Poetry: Rebecca Street’s “Sixth Sense”

1. GustationIf I was the one screaming, you were the one covering my mouth. Call this an oversight, if you will. I was too loose. I was shaken, not stirred. I was free and handed to you by a stranger. Remember when you replaced the racket in my hand with a baseball bat? Skull cracks.…
Fiction: Three Thought Experiments by Ron Burch

Thought Experiment 1 You are a white person. You have never been in trouble with law enforcement. You are driving to work. A police car pulls you over. You remove your driver license and registration. Over their loudspeaker, a police officer demands that you put your hands in the air. Both officers have their guns…
Five Poems by Michael Augustine Jefferson

Ode to Robert Jordan, for Whom the Bell Tolls And I went into the wooded area below East and by the creek and there I cried about an hour smoking Newports against a tree with my knees there at the chin and my feet angled awkwardly ugly as it all feels when drained down the…
Three Poems by R.D. Landau

Ghazal Chocolate meditation: listen to the foil crinkle touch the smooth surface, bite off the tip, now eat the kiss. All she wants is to climb a tree in peace. But all these strangers (relatives) demand a kiss. She woke with the pain of childbirth (twins). What prince would slash through briar for a kiss?…