Slingshot Factory Andrew Zornoza __________ ASPX-PIM begins to warm up! ASPX-PIM is the name of our whirring plastic injection machine. Deep inside its belly, manifold heaters let electrical current puddle into heat with measured control. It’s very important for everything ASPX-PIM does to be measured. Excess heat, excess plastic, excess…
Read MoreAs Per Usual Susan Isla Tepper __________ In the bodega I ordered four cups of black coffee. After I paid, the register girl put the four cups into a small cardboard tray with cup grooves. I carried it over to the little counter with the sugar and non-sweetener packets and the thumbnail…
Read MoreDelSanto’s Beach Joe Kapitan __________ Remy, the foreman in Weighing/Sorting, says I should never have been hired in the first place (Human Resources needs to start giving attitude tests, not aptitude tests, he says). Feldman has taken to sitting at another lunch table, the same Feldman who used to ask…
Read MoreThe Company Man James Gianetti __________ My father was the kind of person who tried finding the symbolism in everything. One time a small pheasant soared right into our kitchen window at breakfast time. My brother and I counted the feathers as they floated on the milk in our cereal…
Read MoreLetter from the Guest Editor Karris Rae __________ I’m a fan of extremes and contradictions. When I pitched the concept for this issue last spring, both were at the heart of my vision. We spend so much of our lives waiting for each moment to pass, just to spend retirement…
Read MoreLetter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ My first real “paycheck” job was at the Montgomery Mall—Lynn’s Hallmark, to be specific. (It was great fun, at age sixteen, to sport a nametag that read LYNN’S HALLMARK—LYNN.) That mall has since closed, and I have worked many jobs since then:…
Read MoreUndercover Boss Carly Diaz __________ I’ve been secretly hoping the new IT guy is our Undercover Boss. Brian is about 5 ’10, chubby, and has a very sad-looking mustache, like I bet if he stood still for long enough I could count all the hairs. He wears black plastic glasses,…
Read MoreFour Walls Michael Martone __________ Mont-Saint-Michel France The island was fortified in 1256, resisting the sieges of the Hundred Years War. During the German occupation of France, the island was a major tourist destination for the Germans, a half million visited the island over the four years. A single American…
Read MoreA World Is a World Is a World & Guernica, and then some Sam Rasnake __________ A World Is a World Is a World – after Cobb’s Barns and Distant Houses (1931), painting by Edward Hopper I remember the world Hopper paintedMy Saturdays, toys in the closet besidethe cedar chest.…
Read Moretricky honey & A man of winter Kate Carsella __________ tricky honey You know what they say— We’re headed toward Selfish Times. Disunion. Good then, leave us. Let us part, he chose acrimony. Sunset and salt, daylight in between. Citation: They’ll let you choke on your own saliva on the…
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