This is why she ran away when a pregnant woman crossed her path. “I didn’t want to be near the hands that left marks on everything they touched,” writes Stambo.

I have grown out of the sock drawer. a vagrant unfit holed structure that still somehow keeps you warm.

Because I was brown
they cocked their thumbs
aimed pasty forefingers
at me while they shouted
‍ ‍ Take that, Geronimo!

It’s as easy as it sounds in my grandparents’ letters to live a normal life under an authoritarian regime. You love or fall out of love, you go on summer adventures, defend a dissertation. The trains keep running, cows keep giving milk.

“Half my year I don't write at all because I’m fishing.”

“Up here he no longer needed to hide his voice.”