Returned From the Future: Headland Interview with Bryan Walpert
Professor Bryan Walpert is a poet, fiction writer, essayist and literary scholar.
The Affliction
Kuya Taho croons in the gloaming. His voice carries across the barangay, where it’s quiet except for the strays panting in the leftover heat.
You Never Really Touched Anything in Your Whole Life
All humans on Earth would fit inside a sugar cube, says the scientist on the car radio. You’d just need a giant trash compactor with infinite crushing power.
Pacific Standard Time
Dad bought me my first watch when I was nine.
Shooting Star
Sometimes Jamie wondered if he was face blind.
Offset the Trauma
1. Mum was sprawled in a peace sign on the living room carpet, the sun casting light between the spokes of her arms and legs.
Happy Valley
My parents ran a Chinese takeaway shop called Happy Valley that was joined to our house like an appendage.
The Weight of Falling Water
(October 2022) Our landscape is drunk with rain. The hills drink rain until they can no longer hold it. They get giddy and it all comes back out.
The Drop-In
We always leave Grandma’s house late at night, after the Braves game ends or midnight hits, whichever comes first.