Deafening
Captive, Cynthia Lee My parents and I have spent all day at Boston Children’s Hospital. I’m not sick, but you wouldn’t know that from their reactions. I run off to watch TV while they talk in the kitchen, too quiet for…
Day: May 6, 2021
Eucalyptus
Growth, Liatris Hethcoat Wednesday mornings are steam and oil, cigarette smoke and other unpleasant smells, which is to say that Wednesdays are really no different from Tuesdays or Thursdays or any other day except Sundays. Elle doesn’t work on Sundays.…
The Gate
2, Julia Broeker I ran over my boyfriend’s parents’ Maltipoo with my Ford 250. It wasn’t intentional. I’m not a psycho-animal-murderer or anything. I had just punched in the four-digit code, a pathetic 0000, and pulled through the front gate,…
Not Above the Knee
Karla with Candle, Kreuzberg, Berlin, Samantha Metzner When I was in fifth grade, I asked my mom if I could start shaving my legs. There was no real need for this—I was both blonde and prepubescent, for Chrissake—but the question had…
For Dogs Have Encompassed Me
Livelihood, Liza Ashley She sniffs his gun because she knows what gunpowder smells like. She likes the smell. Daddy and me used to take her down to the holler when we would shoot old beer cans. Daddy used to use…
Papa Willow
Popcorn, Karlen Lambert On some nights the pasture and the prairie fire, red blooming, are still, standing straight, unbowed beneath the biggest moon, that downglows to the grasshusks, each of them unmolested by black cow, nor tomato bug, and the…