Can We Be Difficult Together? by Anna McCarthy The first sign of weirdness among the nine- and ten-year-olds came when the adults were in a meeting. Thorndon Lofts is a cohousing community, so we have a lot of meetings. And because we’re a cohousing community for...
Bandrui by AJ Strosahl My daughter is born a black hole. After my long struggle, they put her on my chest, squalling mightily, and I look down at her and see nothing. Not nothing, really, but something like a photograph taken by a camera whose lens has been smeared...
Topple by Stephen Haines My neighbors used to watch my father chop down trees while they drank their morning coffee. It was something of an event—like watching live, extreme sports from your backyard patio. Wayne and Renee would set their alarm, eat breakfast, and...
Accumulation by Megan Snyder-Camp Two months after she leftwe drove to a cliff by the highway and broke rocks openat the shaded table. A volunteer showed ushow to pry the rocks apart like books,like a baby does to books, exposing one protected moment in timeor...
Jolene at 33¹ by Brian Clifton The speaker’s pleases bloat. A drum in the stomach’s soft pit. A guitar strung with rain. The name that spins within the sleeping leaps from another’s mouth. The flaming swells; the fire shrinks, the...
