Dear Readers and Writers,

In her newest collection, With My Back to the World, Victoria Chang writes, “When death was near, I could touch time. It was / softer than I thought it would be.”

In Equatorial Five, our selected poets sculpt their way through a composite of moments in which I feel the density of time rather than the speed of it. Thin years reduce to viscous minutes. Seconds feel both weightless and compact. In this way, these poems, to me, are beautiful; though, as Javier Zamora notes, “…beauty doesn’t have to be happy.”

As you read, I invite you to notice moments of clay and air. Then read again to see what, if anything, has changed.

My sincerest gratitude to the contributors, submitters, and readers who continually shape Equatorial with their language and imaginations.

Benjamin Faro
Editor

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