Orlando White is originally from Tólikan, Arizona. He is Diné (Navajo) of the Naaneesht’ézhi Tábaahí (Zuni Water’s Edge Clan) and born for the Naakai Diné’e (Mexican Clan). He is the author of two poetry collections, Bone Light (Red Hen Press, 2009) and Letters (Nightboat Books, 2015). White holds a BFA in creative writing from the Institute of […]
Skeletons shaped like two letters. She holds a comma. He holds a black dot. Each do not know the other until they are laid next to one another. Underneath the paper both have faces. If you look under the page, you will see two lovers shaped like i and j kissing with a hyphen.
Man with one leg, no arms, wears black suit, white necktie. Woman in black dress, white scarf, no arms too. On white sheet both attend paper funeral; tears ink. But you can put a hyphen between them: look they are holding hands.
I place a black cloth the size of a dot over his head. Wrap his entire miniscule body with a thread of my black hair. He lies there on a white sheet of paper and wriggles like a dark cocoon, thinks he is going to transform. The letter, when it begins to lose color in […]
The book is open. Can you hear and see the cricket? Listen. It sounds as if someone is rubbing the bristles of two combs together. Look closer. Legs are struggling like an upside down fly, like a blinking eyelash. Touch it. And you will feel its tiny hairs. There is a letter on the page […]
i On the page, a man the size of a letter wears a white necktie and a dark suit. j Next to him, a woman the size of a letter, too; she wears a white scarf and a black gown. – Not a punctuation sign but a mark of accentuation written between two lovers. i […]
Trace a circle on top of another. Both are alike but do not mean the same thing. Divide zero by zero: both are not something on either side of its given place. Listen to the clock without numbers, the sound of something not written on. Write the letter O; see the straight-line curve one end […]
He gave me a book and I opened it. The first line I noticed was, “The child with the blank face of an egg.” Then, I felt my face erased to its skull. There was a missing space. So I peeled off a piece of a letter from the next page. And I nudged it […]