Arnisha Royston i bought a gym membership. worked out on the same machine in the same corner everyday. there is a man that likes to workout two machines down from me. i thought about waving at him. i...
Jane Zwart Consider the forsythia. Considerthe child who jostles that basketof saffron antlers. Considerthe charm of goldfinchesblown from the bush, sparksfrom ember, and the lemonsucker the child...
Nikki Barnhart From our vantage point on the bleachers, we watched them. We sat shivering, frozen still, in polyblend short-shorts and tee-shirts knotted—coquettishly, we let ourselves believe—at...
Wendy BooydeGraaff Cracked Fake Leather Sit on the bar stool for the zillionth time, eating the spaghetti and meatless balls (tofu? seitan? you still can’t get it straight after three years) your...
Ellie Cheng They say they can’t find your son when you wake up. Edward, you try to say. Edward David Solomon when he’s running away from bathtime in his Spiderman undies, Eddie for...
Melissa Darcey Hall We meet on the first night. Sandy-eyed, thirsty, and half awake, I tip-toe to the kitchen, careful not to wake Wesley, and there she is, sitting at the kitchen table painting her...
Kenneth Jakubas I’m giving specific instructions in my will that I be buried with items from one year in my life. Being a nostalgic person, I chose the twentieth year. I wanted all of 2009 in...
Linette Marie Allen Peering from the window of my train, I see not murder — fat and juicy murder, but wild collards growing woke, posh and unpicked, green as pistachio. I pop a few in horror —...
Steven Harvey Like eagle rounding out the morning/ Inside us./ We pray that it will be done/ In beauty./ In beauty.—Joy Harjo I’ve never seen an eagle rounding out the morning inside me, but I...
Keegan Lawler In the woods of North Idaho, black bears and velvet-antlered moose didn’t scare you as much as wood ticks did. Stories you’d heard of ticks gone fat with blood, hiding in hairlines...