PROFILE BY RICHARD RISEMBERG  34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 87

I wondered why we’d bothered leaving the house. We were sitting at right angles to each other, supposedly the most intimate position. But that doesn’t work unless you actually look at the other person. I was doing all the looking, or at least all the looking that wasn’t directed at product from some startup trying to hook enough eyeballs so that it could pimp itself to a media conglomerate’s shareholders. 

HALF-FOOT HEROES BY BEN UMAYAM  34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 87

At the age of 13, a typical pubescent Filipino boy, I was obsessed with my inadequacy in the penis department. I was taught the Asian Myth. Asians have minuscule members. The other guys and all the girls knew your Asian putz was smaller.

HEART ON ICE BY UTE CARSON  34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 87

“How many more deaths can we bear?” my grandmother sighed. I thought so too and asked if life was like this, “Always sadness and tears?” My grandmother had no immediate answer but held me tight. After a long pause she said, “No child, what we have between us is not only sadness but love and joy.”

BLUE CORN PANCAKES BY WILLIAM HUHN 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 87

Only school buses put chains on these days but schools all closed