Summary

In "Stela and Fly": "Sestina," it is spring of 2020. Stela is living in New York City. Because of both her parents' fears of abandonment, Stela "is afraid of the same thing" (218). Fly is also afraid of the ways in which his parents' identities might prescribe his own.

Stela and Fly meet coincidentally. They do not fall in love at first sight. They both know they are carrying "an ancestry's worth of broken hearts between them" (218). Their relationship feels easy and comfortable at the start. Fly is looking for a sign "that will allow him to make love to this woman and then fall for this woman" (219). Eventually he feels that "Stela and he are fated" (220). Because Stela is preoccupied by worries concerning her dying father, the relationship with Fly terrifies her.

Stela talks to her father on the phone. He...