Picture a man walking into a grocery store — Harris-Teeter, say. An old man in a corduroy coat, tufts of acrylic pile spilling out the sleeves. He stops between the automatic doors, feels around in his pockets, checks his wallet. No list. He glances around, frowning, as if debating whether to soldier on without it […]
Contributors 83
Amanda Bales: Rotate and Return
Beth watched the tip of the rod quiver, the motion sharp against the gentle sway of pine trees and white shells of aspen jutting from the boulders and cliffs surrounding them. She looked at her shaking hands and took a steadying breath, stepped ankle deep into the river. Her casts were neat, but they were […]
Janna Pate: Because You Were Older
You built your own table, the bare boards exposed. By yourself, you kept the top clean, marble smooth. What’s more, you prepared for this dinner, you measured your sauces in stone sake saucers, speckled with pinches of thyme and flicked sage. You knew your spices. But, because you were a man, you could fixate on […]
Rose McLarney: We’re Not Much for Words, But
Blackberries, suspended in moonshine, enlarged with alcohol, skins stretched taut, almost to bursting and preserved, sit on the shelf. They wait, purple and potent, with the promise that, if we drink, our skins will press together, and our lips will split in speech.
Mara Jebsen: Sundays in Lomé
By the jelly blue lights of an ocean The day wakes, and breaks into sweat Beach saunterers gossip of potions, The power of juju, the wet Face of a madman, whose wife, they said put a spell in with the onions— It was a Sunday of church, vodou, and knife Her stewpots were seized by […]
Kristin Hatch: Sign of the Beefcarver Poem
we were at the break table swatting flies off the au jus. jerky kept laying his bald head on my shoulder & i was like i’m trying to eat my french dip, but probably so timidgirl it sounded like purr, purr. (everything sticky, everything tan) the boys would smoke in the kitchen & probably ash […]