The Dentist, The Bootlegger Meghan Louise Wagner __________ The drops went the same each month. I kept my hair under my cap and let Julian do the talking. After the boss counted the crates, he’d crack into a random bottle to sample. He’d take a couple glugs, swish, then nod…
Read MoreThe Death of Harold Cassidy Colton Huelle __________ In the days following Harold Cassidy’s death, Joy’s Facebook feed was clogged with lengthy tributes to the late novelist and links to even lengthier blog posts about his contribution to American literature. Writers and critics of all stripes crawled out of the…
Read MoreSilhouette of a Girlhood Meghana Mysore __________ Lakshmi winced when she heard a thudding from upstairs. The kettle was on for chai, and its whistle grew from a tame whisper to a high-pitched scream. She turned off the kettle and ran upstairs to the bathroom where Mamatha took her showers.…
Read MoreMan on the Moon Christine Williams __________ Camille saw it as a good omen. The most outspoken of all friends who doubted your intentions with me, she changed her tune when I told her about your team’s bachata social last week, when you’d reached for my hand during performances, and…
Read MoreOlympians Kent Kosack __________ The kick becomes a glide in a graceful shuffle as Jon’s skis cruise along the cross-country trails carved into the ice-crusted snow of Lapland Lake, his body cruising with them, his thoughts and fears and hopes and memories cruising too, concurrent, behind, ahead, the same groomed…
Read MoreTonight John Brantingham __________ It’s 2ambefore I noticethe snow in the streetlight coming downin fat wet flakes.It’s an inch thick on the road, and no one’sdriven this way yet.Sirens are whining and so far from methat they’re soft as birdsong.The blue light of my neighbor’s televisionis playingoff his curtains. I…
Read MoreA Typical Day in the Life of Love JC Reilly __________ Love crawls from a holelike a mouse in the pantry;beware its droppings. Love seeks its shadow behind its back but can’t turn fast enough to see. Love hangs its sheet ona line in the morning sun.It snaps with the…
Read MoreSixteen Rounds of Chemo Sara Pirkle __________ After a nurse pluckedthe IV from my portlike a wasp stingerand the rubber-tire tasteof Taxol faded— After the victorypicture was snappedand posted onlinefor hundreds ofstrangers to like— After fake smilingwhile a chorusof nurses serenadedas I dutifully rangthe treatment bell— I sank into the…
Read MoreSagittarius A* Rohan Buettel __________ There is a hole in the heart of my galaxy;supermassive and black; no light emitsin any event from below the horizon.It sits in the snowy wastes of the Milky Way,dense with star clusters and interstellar nebulae.The absence keeps growing —no matter how much falls in,…
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