Chloe Goes to College Robbie Gamble __________ Last night I saw the Subaru in my dreams. Now they have dragged my dog bed from the trunk, stuffed it with boxes, tote bags, a duffel big enough to hold three of me. This is not a good sign. Luggage means absence, and though I do…
Read MoreOmelet & Her 77th Michelle McMillan-Holifield __________ Omelet We broke eggs sloppily over a Corelle cup,that little 1977goblet whose greensweren’t leavesbut a censusof mossy splotches, whose pattern of small yolk-yellow flowers was as familiar and delicious a memory as the zingof mustard greensin a grandmother’ssweltering kitchen—her love villagewhere she prayedfor her salvationwhere she prayedfor her babieswhere…
Read MoreWalking on the Levee on Our Way to Angel Mounds Mark Williams __________ We met on Sunday mornings with our dogs: beagles,retrievers, John Biacinni’s two German Shepherds,a collie, a pair of Great Danes, a pit-mix . . .An ecumenical gathering if ever there was. OnceI counted twenty-one people and twenty-six…
Read MoreFree Steven Ray Smith __________ You were a baby on the day I met you, and also not, because you had lived already, alone and for yourself already, somewhere invisible to me that I could never visit. But because you didn’t know how to hunt or to hide from those…
Read MoreLetter From the Guest Editor Abbie Skinner __________ What a strange and beautiful thing it is to share your life with an animal. Reading the submissions for this special edition, I was struck by this idea of intersections of life and how important those intersections can become in spite of…
Read MoreHow My Dog Smells Dean Flowerfeld __________ The world is a whorl of wonderful whiffsfor a doggie like me who lives by his sniffs and the wind is awash in a welter of wafts,such succulent scents on the breeze are aloft: the sweet and the sour, the savory and musty,the…
Read MoreRhumbline Lucinda Kempe __________ Comus was a black Labrador and came from a breeder on Long Island. Rhumbline Retrievers is run by Susan and her husband Joe. Rhumbline is a nautical term for a straight line between two points.1 Both Susan and her husband had worked in the merchant marine.…
Read MoreTake ’em Both John Janelle Backman __________ The only other customer in the pet shop sidled up to my right, like someone about to whisper a secret. I couldn’t turn my head toward him to get a good look. Short, that I could tell—at least a head shorter than me.…
Read MoreThe Cat Boy Jean-Marc Duplantier __________ When my sister-in-law Amy died, Pascal, her seven-year-old son, moved in with us, and he brought his cat Minou with him. On that first night, I watched from the door of the guest room as my wife Christina kissed Pascal, tucked him in, and…
Read MoreCat O’ Nine Tales Ann Howells __________ Cats domesticated themselves 9000 years ago. My neighbor’s cats are Powderpuff,Queen of Sheeba, & Sugar Dumpling.Their eyes glow like vitreous amber.They loudly order dinner, stayperpetually stoned on canned salmon. My cat, silent & soot-colored, explores unknown spaces, answers to no one. Green…
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