Winter with Periwinkle Redfern Boyd __________ Summer gets all the glory. People talk about their lives changing during the hot months. Our season was winter, especially the limbo between Christmas and New Year’s. That time belonged to us, me and Periwinkle, and to our families, who lived the other eleven…
Read MoreQueen for a Day Emily Collins __________ I find my mother in the garage curled like a cat on top of the washing machine—something she hasn’t done since I was small and hurting and drunk off her love. I stand beside the washing machine and shake Mother gently. Her shoulder…
Read MoreLaton Carter __________ This Pleasing Sting Lady Mary Wroth was having a devil of a time with Auto-Correct. In this strang labourinth how shall I turne? she cried out. But her words were deleted and revised: In this strangled labor, without shallots I return. Shallots. Had someone ordered soup? And…
Read MoreMake Up Forever Anu Kandikuppa __________ I haven’t broken completely with my sister, but we don’t get along well with each other. Actually we can barely speak one civil word to each other. She has a way of looking me up and down when we meet that makes me want…
Read MoreNo Sweeter Fat Jess E. Jelsma __________ I first discover I am pregnant in the grimy employee bathroom at Archibald’s Steakhouse. The room is so small that, sitting on the seat with my knees spread, I can reach out and lay my palms against all four cinder block walls. The…
Read MoreA Bad Seed A.I. Chow __________ Although Sarah had always gotten along with her mother, it wasn’t until her mother returned to China that they began to talk to each other like normal people. Which was to say, her mother stopped calling herself “Mommy.” It was okay in Chinese but…
Read MoreA Few Things Before Coffee Nicholas John-Francis Claro __________ Dear Marjorie, The world it seems has a smaller heart than I originally thought. I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds tragic and somehow a little beautiful, too. I thought I would share it with you. The line came…
Read More