#Free KhachaturyanSisters
CW: r*pe, domestic violence, child abuse
Taped onto a fire alarm call box
on the northeast corner of Broadway
and East 12 th Street, is a flier
about the Khachaturyan sisters,
three Russian teens who stabbed
their father after a lifetime
of rape and abuse.
Krestina, Angelina, Maria,
ages nineteen, eighteen,
and seventeen when they
freed themselves from their
tormentor, face up to twenty
years in Russian prison unless
their charge is changed
to self-defense, the flier reports.
Domestic violence was decriminalized
in Russia two years ago for first time
offenders. I photograph the flier and Google
the sisters, three graces with chestnut
hair. Whores, their father spat
until the sisters dished out justice with pepper
spray, a hunting knife, and hammer.
Morningside Heights on July 30
it’s too hot to write
with the windows open
words stuck like a necklace
around my throat
it’s like waiting on a humid subway platform
air so greasy I might suffocate
from all the stories I long to write
but am too –
Thunder Moon
like a round citrine
above Harlem
this 4th of July
fireworks spray paint
the night sky I hear
more than I see
did the Lenape
name it after July
thunderstorms
did almanacs call it Buck
Moon after deer
with velvety antler buds
did farmers name it Hay
Moon as they baled
hay in summer
it’s all the same to me
golden light
bright bright bright
Writer’s Block
a boxy paragraph
of run-ons & word
vomit on everything
& nothing all at once
Writer’s Block
it’s never as good
on paper as it is
in my head
it’s not sexy
or shocking
or confessional
it’s plain ordinary
like the thrum
of bee wings
around a flower
ready to plunge
pen to paper
Susanna Horng (she/her, pronounced soo-SAN-na HONG) teaches writing and cultural studies at New York University. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Global City Review, Minerva Rising, and Bennington Review. She has received support from the Catwalk Art Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and The Jerome Foundation.
The Marbled Sigh 