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Here is my solitary city. This island of steel
and avenue. Towers with skeletons of organ

I thought that when I saw my brother
walking through the gates of the prison,
he would look like a man entering his life. 

After his two years of schooling, Eduardo took up the destiny ordained to the people of Pocoboch: growing yucca, squash, tomatoes, chiles, beans, and corn on small plots carved into the jungle. There may not have been much money, but for...

At first, there was nothing to do but watch.
For days, before the trucks arrived, before the work
of clean-up, my brother sat on the stoop and watched.

The first run, from Tampa to McAllen to Greensboro, was a bit of a lark. Maria was living in Tampa, and she was bored. So when a friend, someone she knew to be a Mexican drug cartel–affiliated smuggler, appeared at her door with a business...

Don’t make the mistake of calling her
angel or saint. The tremendous broad crowning
Troy’s war monument grips her sword

Chris Ware contributes the sixth installment of “Jordan W. Lint,” a “serialized pictorial fiction,” to the Fall 2009 issue of VQR.

The house is in need of repair, but is—
for now, she says—still hers. After the storm,
she laid hands on what she could reclaim:

Did you know? You have the right to receive food stamps within a few days if you are eligible and have little or no money. Do any of these apply to you?