When I woke up I knew I was pregnant with Coco. It was raining and my window was open. While I was sleeping, droplets of water had pushed through the screen holes and ricocheted off of the windowsill’s chipping, white paint in unlikely trajectories. The drops landed in an uneven spray across the blanket covering […]
Contributors 79
Hillery Stone: Fever
She lies on our bed whimpering under a blanket she’s kicked off ten times this morning- how am I to know whether to warm her or take away the warmth as her fever rages, marches past the Tylenol we gave, the chilled towels, the bag of frozen peas I pressed and pressed to her swollen […]
Ravi Shankar: Hand Dip
Quick as a fishhook flared into the water, the way hip rubs against hip intentionally unintentional on the dance floor, furtive as a glance at someone else’s bank statement, palmed like a cigarette in the rain, the fingers exploratory, an insect’s antennae, twitching to capture texture to populate the hinterlands of a long winter night […]
Julie Ritter: 5:43am
My father was a hive Even strangers came home to him Before he got sick, we were sheafy, nested until something dire awoke in the dark pith of his bones like a fungus weakens the tree All systems were choked & hectic like a root ball We waited for him to rise and untangle himself […]
Adam Nussbaum: Funeral Arrangement
Not buried, not cremated, he asked to be recorded- ground up, mixed with wax, molded, & according to prints lifted from the stained Olds’ steering wheel, handles of hammers & golf club grips, the onyx disc was grooved. We circled the player. Mom dropped the needle, & through the hiss we hoped for a symphony. […]
Carley Moore: The First Between
The dog three stories down barks in bullets and captions. He’s Pac-man. He’s hungry. He’s right. The cat three stories up dislodges himself from his bed to move his water bowl and upturn his remaining food. He’s the self-made pigeon of the hall, the king of lumbering small, and the czar of surprise wake-up calls. […]