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 MoreMore Than What They See Cacelie Gooden __________ “One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.” – Dr. Seuss“One eye, two eyes, one girl, one guy.” – Society For many people of color, especially Black Americans, entering a public place like a store warrants people watching you like a hawk,…
Read MoreThe Diehards Matthew Kenerly __________ San Jose State Spartans (3-8, 2-5 Mountain West) vs. Fresno State Bulldogs (1-10, 0-7 MW) November 26, 2016—Bulldog Stadium (41,031)—Fresno, California—12:30 PM PT Nothing lasts forever, not even unparalleled humiliation. That such embarrassments on occasion come to an end under the threat of a late…
Read MoreConsider the Pass Rusher Terry Horstman __________ 2007 NFL Season—Week One—Atlanta at Minnesota—Vikings lead 24-3—Falcons have the ball, 1st & 10 at the Vikings’ 23 with one second left in the 4th quarter Consider the pass rusher. A pass rusher’s prowess is determined almost entirely by the one number that…
Read MoreMister Average or, A Properly Forged Sword Eric P. Mueller __________ Silence, rare on the football field, usually occurs with gasps, like after the hardest collisions, or, in a moments of loss when the team scores, a player is injured, or you lose the game. That’s probably why my silence…
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