Photosynthesis by Jason Hardung The automated voice on the other end says, “burlywood.” This is my color! My heart pounds like I won something. Then I remember who I called and my heart pounds even harder. A few weeks ago, I was let out on bond. The state assigned me...
Can We Be Difficult Together? by Anna McCarthy The first sign of weirdness among the nine- and ten-year-olds came when the adults were in a meeting. Thorndon Lofts is a cohousing community, so we have a lot of meetings. And because we’re a cohousing community for...
Bandrui by AJ Strosahl My daughter is born a black hole. After my long struggle, they put her on my chest, squalling mightily, and I look down at her and see nothing. Not nothing, really, but something like a photograph taken by a camera whose lens has been smeared...
Topple by Stephen Haines My neighbors used to watch my father chop down trees while they drank their morning coffee. It was something of an event—like watching live, extreme sports from your backyard patio. Wayne and Renee would set their alarm, eat breakfast, and...
Archipelago by Griffin Reister Johnson We’ll open cold, on a tight shot of a dewy glass of the local beer gripped between two spidery hands, no rings, a pale bump on the side of the right middle finger, bloodless white rinds at the base of each nail. A local...
Inheritance + Sorry by Ho-Ming So Denduangrudee Inheritance Back in the days of film, my father grabbed the Nikon of a tourist getting in the way one too many times and exposed his entire roll without saying a word. He and my mother took what they called...
