Cover Photo: An illustration of many grubby hands fighting over money and candy and a Ferrero Rocher chocolate
Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

Dead Jasmine

On the anniversary of his death, I put a stem of jasmine in a glass vase on the windowsill. The flower’s fragrance a bridge between this world and the next.

Did I cut myself? Did I? Maybe I did, no, yes, did I? I don’t know.

He’s back, he’s back, he’s back

Are you my nanny’s lover?

Why should I?

slept

Why would I be afraid of her?

Tighter, tighter

Abbigail Nguyen Rosewood is a Vietnamese and American author. Her debut novel, IF I HAD TWO LIVES, is out from Europa Editions. Her second novel CONSTELLATIONS OF EVE is the inaugural title forthcoming in 2022 from DVAN/TTUP, a publishing imprint founded by Isabelle Thuy Pelaud, a scholar of Asian American history and literature, and Pulitzer winner Viet Thanh Nguyen to promote Vietnamese American literature.

Her works can be found at TIME Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Salon, Cosmopolitan, Lit Hub, Electric Lit, Catapult, Pen America, BOMB, among others. She is the founder of Neon Door, an immersive art exhibit. Find her at www.abbigailrosewood.com