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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 me to hear. We just found out that I was born with hearing loss and…
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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 been bothering me since earlier that day when Courtney McArthur started bragging about how she…
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Las Santas
Talking Dead, Amanda Stephen “Dios te salve Maria, llena eres de gracia. El Señor esta contigo. Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre: Jesús. Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros los pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte. Amén.” – Ave Maria …
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Flotsam
Defense Mechanism 3, Elizabeth Ellenwood Picture these personal prompts like reporters, microphones to my face, asking me, So what do you do? What do you want from life? Over here, Franziska—what are you passionate about? I write, Am having an all-life crisis. Will get back to you later. Backspace backspace backspace. I like nonfiction…
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The Kitchens
Grandma’s Cupcake Stand, Jessica Ashworth When my children think back to the mother of their childhood, what will come to mind? Smiling in the kitchen, the stereo plays mommy lullabies in the form of Hobo Johnson or the Killers. Maybe the soft voice of Emma Messenger narrating Jane Eyre or a newsclip from public radio.…
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Wi, Mwen Se Ayisyen: Yes, I am Haitian
Portrait of a Friend, Noah Bavonese I believe in being Haitian. Haiti has always been looked at as poor and dirty because it is a place where everyone takes from but never appreciate. Being born and raised in Haiti I always identified as pure Haitian instead of just saying “African-American” but because I adapted so…
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Breathless
Do You See It, Mommy?, Hannah Elizabeth High I. Back then we were just bodies. We would watch Cosmos on Netflix and wrestle on the couch, knocking over empty beer bottles with our eyes closed. Sometimes, Jackson would pause to marvel at a projection of stars, but I could never bring myself to look. I…
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Johnny, Satan, and Various Georgias
After the Impact, Sarena Pollock Walking up to the house had been strange, perhaps even suspicious. The building was a two-story monument to the cotton-picking genocide of days supposedly gone past, and the way the sunset had framed it did not bode well. Sure, it was pretty, but dawn and dusk are doorways, and Johnny…
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Who’s this Clown?
All for One, Ella Van Haren “What’s something you like about yourself?” My counselor sat across from me in her office, leaning in so far her brunette bob pitched into her face. She spoke in the high, breezy voice she so often used to charm me into a positive mental attitude. It was raining outside.…
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Vanilla
Pins and Needles, Kamron Williams In 1987, my mommy and papi met through God. My mommy was seventeen, spreading the love of Jesus Christ in Chapopote, a remote village on the Tamesí River in Mexico. My papi was twenty-four and fiercely smitten with my mommy the moment they met in his neighborhood church. My papi claimed…
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Blue Magic and Black Rubber Bands
Illuminated, Ava Fojtik In the summer, I would sit on my porch under the cherry tree in my backyard, as my grandmother and mother tried to tame my hair with Blue Magic and black rubber bands. Those days smelled of fresh-cut grass, blooming cherry florets and coconut oil. My fist clenched and my eyes squinted…
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Half of One
Warped, Rachel Donohue my mother never made me blackberry pie, she wanted me to know how to make it myself, so that i could quench my own thirst as i licked my lips, and learned that half a dozen eggs, was the same as six. the blackberries i pick from my aunt’s yard stain my…
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Then and There
The Grass is Never Greener, Vinnie Hagar Mom used to tell me kindness is always the answer. At my Lutheran Elementary school we used to watch videos of starving children in Africa and be handed small purple boxes to collect change in. I still don’t think I understand how to eat meditatively. Oprah talks about how…
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Fragile Bones
ano nakikita Mo?, harana 1948 Scientist Alfred Kinsey concludes that 37% of men have enjoyed homosexual activities at least once. 2002 – 54 years later – In the third grade, someone accused me of being it for the first time. The class was divided on whether I was or was not. Of course, I was…
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Small on a Binary Train
Defense Mechanism 3, Elizabeth Ellenwood I don’t remember being asked. I don’t remember even being told. I just woke up aboard this train, so far from home. And I’m afraid because I’m too small. I don’t know where we’re going. Daddy blew up these red balloons just for me. He said, “What good is…
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Paloma
Two Rivers Meet, Rebecca Turnbull Maná booms from the CD player, making the walls quake and water drip from the showerhead. Mom throws the towel over my head, drying my hair, my cheeks – still heavy with baby fat. “My little angel, you’re getting so big,” she says, voice unsteady. She jumps when a slam…
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On Light
Flickering Strings of Love, Paul Knight I love you the most watching you get pushed around in a crowd of people while a band plays— Your hair glued to your sweaty face. I watch your mouth contort as you sing along and I think: this is what desire feels like. After the concert, we stand…
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Medical Observations
Element of Speech, Bethany Dudek Day 1, February 1999 First observation of symptoms. Subject is a Caucasian male, 3 years old as of today (February 20th), outwardly healthy, one younger brother. Plays relatively well with other children, no observable developmental disabilities. No general symptoms that can be easily correlated to any standard physical disorder. However,…
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Beauty Sleep
Nature Administers a Rorschach Test, Margaret May 1 I pull my voice recorder out of my pocket, and press the red button. “Hi, mom,” I whisper, not wanting to disturb the peace, “one time, you asked me what the mountains sound like.” I pause to outstretch the recorder in my palm and add, “well, here…
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Downstairs
Warped, Rachel Donohue When the distance between the bottom of the steps and the edge of her bed was too far for her to travel, I made the journey happily and often. After bounding up the carpeted stairs on all fours and pushing her door open, I found my mother propped up on a throne of…
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died, 2016
Say a Prayer, Mikaela Rae Antoigue In 2016, my grandparents’ dog died. He was an old dog, covered with warts, and they had to put him down due to his misery. Some time later, their other dog died, presumably of grief. In 2016, Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin died. He was getting his…
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Hey Tray
Shadows, Amanda Wisbeck Hey Tray, I know we’ve never talked, but I needed to reach out to someone. Someone that could understand what I’m feeling right now, what I’m going through. I’m sure you know the news by now. They got another one of us, bro. For real. This young boul named Jordan, down in…