Kansas, anyway Rachele Salvini __________ Since I moved here, I’ve been looking up horrible Kansas stories to avoid thinking. I read about a mother who never let her kid out, so he grew up in his room, never able to meet other children. He sat in his own feces, crawling…
Read MoreAncestor, Mother, Goddess Anissa Lynne Johnson __________ 8,000 years ago, at the dawn of human civilization in the Fertile Crescent, rodents plagued the settlements, attracted by crops and the by-products of agriculture. Humans proved defenseless against the hordes searching for an easy meal, reproducing at exponential rates. No Neolithic weapons…
Read MoreCritters Sharon Hoffman __________ Decades ago, we let the back lawn go wild, and now the marsh oaks dwarf the house. There are loquats, sweet bay, red bud, cherry laurel, saw palmetto and Spanish bayonet. The Cape Girardeau has long since swallowed up the fence. It’s become a dense thicket…
Read MoreTrick or Treat Don Raymond __________ You’ll only get so many of these; try to spend them wisely. Wisely or not, spend them you will: the clock ticks inevitably forward, and the seasons spill their colors across the trees, regardless of your choices. Try to make the best of this.…
Read MoreThe General Penny Nolte __________ A long time ago, Dad and his brother, who was the principal, found it hidden way underthe stage of our little school in upstate New York. They were scrounging around back there, nodoubt only because they could, and that’s when they hauled it out, this…
Read More