Brave Woman Keeps Wolves from Body of Dead Husband1

Brave Woman Keeps Wolves from Body of Dead Husband ¹ by Ryan Burruss The September night was cool without being cold, and as she paced through the amber firelight, an unwelcome, wayward word alighted on her tongue: pleasant. Disgusted by the sentiment, she dragged her...

Past in Prints

Past in Prints by Shraya Singh Sumie tells us it’s time to test our cups. She pours cardamom tea into each one, the mosaic of never-used post-glaze pottery catching the light that streams in through the window, a single ray refracted in the soft brown stream of tea...

Kathy, I’m Lost

Kathy, I’m Lost by Scott Nadelson Blame it on Simon & Garfunkel. Bookends was playing in the coffee shop where he stopped most mornings on his way to work, or maybe just Greatest Hits. In either case, those lyrics about laughing on the bus followed by...

Inside the Whale

Inside the Whale by Caitlin Dwyer I wanted to be wild and allowed to roam. Four months pregnant, I thought that motherhood could not change that instinct for exploration. Then I smelled the bear. Shit-smell filled my nostrils, rich and sour: the third scat we’d seen...

Ranch Hand

Ranch Hand by Jacqueline Hughes On Hearing the Bell’s Call to Evensong at the Holy Faith Church of Santa Fe Then agreeing we needed to find a lightning-free place to shelter and the statue of Saint Francis was delicate and resembled that boy from Paterson...