The 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…
Read MoreA Goodbye Letter from the Managing Editor Abbie Skinner __________ A little over two years ago, at the end of my first year of McNeese’s MFA program, everything was changing. The third year students I’d come to rely on for guidance and encouragement were graduating; Allie Mariano, the interim Fiction Director…
Read MoreLetter from the Editor Vallie Lynn Watson __________ Imagine all the People This issue marks a resounding whoop of an end to my first full calendar year at McNeese, and the collaborative effort behind this issue is woven of such lovely threads I will always treasure from my first year.…
Read MoreLast Rites Neil Connelly __________ Breathing In the movies when somebody dies, they always exhale, one long final sigh. But at my mother’s end, she just stopped. She inhaled and her chest rose up then froze. Still. For days, she had struggled to breath, wide-eyed and raspy, something wet and…
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