To speak of by Colette Cosner After Stephen Dunn’s “Routine Things Around the House” Out on the sandbarshe announces her divorce.I thought: now I’ll have a maritime poem. That was unforgivableyet I have since forgiven myselfas women blessed with actual friends...
Ancestor Mirror by Shelby Handler It’s good manners to pretend you understand bloodand the body: I spend evenings watching my lover fish out six knives from the soapy sink, before asking me againto never leave them in there while the faucet is on, before I say nothing...
Night, and the Coffers are Empty by Ronda Piszk Broatch —Mary Ruefle When darkness seeps in I keep my wick trimmed,my juices wrecked with fear. These are the days I live in a house of cards with vodkaand lime. It’s Monday morning, I’m seconds from sex, the...
Paroxysm by Rebecca L. Jensen We meet when we are five. Eve wears her black hair short, pixie cut and rhinestone earrings. I find out in years to come that she only has hair this short because of the surgery. It is easier for them to cut her hair than to let it grow...
Surrender by Midge Raymond Sienna can’t stop watching the clock. At seven-thirty, all the patients are checked in—eighteen ferals—and Dr. Gabby is ready to begin. Why she’s called Dr. Gabby—not Dr. Matthews or just plain Gabby—Sienna has no idea. She’s still too new...
The Making of the Third Child by Lisa Tuininga Step 1: Wait until first two children are sufficiently independent to feed selves, sleep through night, and offer coherent language formation for both entertainment and debate. Only at that point should you continue to...
