Chosen by Joanna Harker-Shaw
 
There are words that perplex and fascinate us when we are children, words adults will not explain, but hush us when we echo them. This beautiful short story from Natalia Borges Polesso tells of a young narrator’s search for understanding, her innocence starkly contrasted by adult prejudice (a prejudice quickly learned as twelve year old Celoi explains with exasperation – do you like pink or blue, dolls or tag, boys or girls).

Flor herself is iconic, captivating, an indisputable denial to the adults claims that machorra is a kind of sickness.

Collected in Amora, Editora Dublinense, 2016. Translation from Amazon Crossing, 2020
 
Joanna Harker-Shaw is a poet, illustrator and writer. She is working towards a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at St Mary’s University, Twickenham.