Kartika_Issue15

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Jackson Bliss earned his MFA from the University of Notre Dame where he was the Fiction Fellow and the 2007 Sparks Prize Winner. Now, he is finishing his PhD in English and Creative at USC, working with TC Boyle, Viet Nguyen and Aimee Bender. Jackson has work published in the Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, Fiction, Quarterly West, ZYZZYVA, Fiction International, Notre Dame Review, African American Review, Quarter After Eight, Connecticut Review, Stand (UK), and 3:am Magazine, among others 70
CLUB GIGOLO Sean Labrador y Manzano ISSUE 15 | SPRING 2013 Am I (are we) suddenly contracted when Beth swaps mint pushed from her mouth to my mouth like resuscitation suggests kinship can find a coherent space quietly tumbling gratitude perhaps ordering basket of chicken fried marinade of soy sauce and kalamansi and I play the magnanimous client replenishing San Miguel and patrolling the floor mamasans approve upselling and I am reminded of daughters smartly dressed selling jicama from rugged tables the perimeter of every town along the MacArthur Highway and fortunate buyers beware the father behind the acacia leaping to close a deal outside the matchmaker’s purview and my mother wants me to return to the States with bride who knows thirst and rural courtesies and the names of rice a daughter-in-law who distrusts bottled water labels a barangay pageant queen as congenial as my mother who draws strength from reciprocating pumps -We are cousins: Beth and I and no one else knows except the professor comparing certification and health care of sex workers in the free trade zone he negotiates mistresses at the other booth now that I have been assigned field study the other students finally abandoned for the roulette wheel’s immediate gratification - Who wants to track how far the hired help have travelled from farms like Easter penitents marching for terminal patrons to be crucified to learn supply and demand and job market oversaturation and how the Taiwanese mother-board plant’s refusal measures Rizal Avenue’s blocks of shame at every hotel, the valet pimps vocational school girl with technical tongue, extracting value of cheap candy - I did not expect to find Beth so soon but I chose my cousin for her legs I chose her legs before I learned they belong to the woman I am looking for the family hero I theorize to exist and I find her in the dressing room sitting on a stool by the bunk bed pushed to the wall leading to the window and the shanties slouching into Shit River and across the river, industrial park promises emerging from abandoned naval base her head turned away while the bright harem advertised themselves as themselves was I sold on her mature inattentiveness or quiescence? - Beth shares bounty of breast and skin the crows not chosen because of their legs I like mine carceral and netted and arabesque she offers a little meat finger to my mouth in steady unflinching rehearsed motion sailors have been fed this way and plant managers too I insist the carcass to the wind and clamor -Two girls, short and lack the illusion of height matched in one-shouldered shellacs dueling to Destiny Child’s “Survivor” facing the mirror wall, squatting to the beat, each holding an invisible torch thought I couldn’t you thought I couldn’t you thought I couldn’t you thought that I would but I am not attracted to recumbent shoulders perhaps the unapologetic Korean talent scout in three- 71
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Cover Art: “The Home Front" from
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MISSION STATEMENT Kartika Review se
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EDITORIAL Eugenia Leigh Dear Reader
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Purvi Shah’s “Tree Risings” d
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The Home Front Jordan Josafat 10
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lip as she tried to swing her swoll
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“Masayuki! Tsune, sit quietly. Be
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simple wedding was kept. Along with
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Etsuko had backed out the door slow
Page 20 and 21: SKIN DEEP Anu Kandikuppa To: Kinder
Page 22 and 23: northwestern part of India, in part
Page 24 and 25: must use a blend of oils and perfor
Page 26 and 27: To: Ms. Clayton and Ms. Simpson Fro
Page 28 and 29: To: General Manager, Crayona Compan
Page 30 and 31: “Yes,” I said, “though I’m
Page 32 and 33: THOUGHTS OF SINKING Kaitlin Solimin
Page 34 and 35: I paused. How had she remembered th
Page 36 and 37: never touched any of the girls inap
Page 38 and 39: the next generation couldn’t best
Page 40 and 41: Chenxi climbed up the silver ladder
Page 42 and 43: she’d tried. She’d climbed to t
Page 44 and 45: else. For now, this tall, slow Amer
Page 46 and 47: “That’s true,” I said. I hate
Page 48 and 49: I’d read a newspaper article many
Page 50 and 51: Bomb the Morons 50
Page 52 and 53: Into the Wild 52
Page 54 and 55: Runaway Train 54
Page 56 and 57: PAROUSIA I Karen An-Hwei Lee Red bu
Page 58 and 59: QUARANTINE Henry W. Leung My feet p
Page 60 and 61: THE TRANSFUSION OF YUKIYO KANAHASHI
Page 62 and 63: 5. Some people will accuse me of bi
Page 64 and 65: Platonic knowledge is joyful recoll
Page 66 and 67: our self, freed from the constraint
Page 68 and 69: the story of how I began studying J
Page 72 and 73: piece suit nearest the air conditio
Page 74 and 75: AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH MONIQUE TRUON
Page 76 and 77: suspect everyone in Saigon was conc
Page 78 and 79: KR: What is the physical act of wri
Page 80 and 81: CONTRIBUTOR BIOS FICTION Sharon Has
Page 82 and 83: ART 82 What The Jordan Josafat Jord
Page 84 and 85: Nonfiction Editor, Jennifer Derilo
Page 86 and 87: Kartika Review is a national Asian
Page 89: ISSUE 15 | SPRING 2013 89
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