Racing Light
by Arya F. Jenkins
It was easy to get out of bed when Lucinda was not in it, easy to greet the day in which the most pressing responsibilities were to her. Everything was for her. She had helped raise her son Michael through his teens, helped put him through college. They had been through the loss of both Lucinda’s parents and her mother, Lucinda’s kidney stones, her own bouts of anxiety, so much.
Something to Find Me
by Jennifer Wortman
I couldn’t lock the bathroom door and I couldn’t open it. The door swung free, revealing an old woman, small and glaring, in the hallway, her hair long and dark as a girl’s. She wanted me dead and I started to scream. A hand grabbed my shoulder, shook me awake.
People in General (excerpt)
by John Colasacco
I am still trying to find the right dog among all these beautiful dogs here in the street. Some of them know me and they know my habits somehow and they know what I would say if I could speak to them. This is the morning no one comes out of their house, it’s only me, the dogs and I, we have been sleeping all night and some of us it seems have been sleeping forever. After all that sleep we need to go outside and join together in this crowd where all else is quiet and the murmurs echo so perfectly. Each dog is looking around for something, feeling ignored, and I sense this the way I sense my fear of speaking in anger up to the point where I might say something that I don’t really think is true.
Jonathan Edwards, Rabbi
by David Leo Rice
My family, let there be no obfuscation or mincing of words by dint of false modesty, is descended from a long, long line of Northampton Jews, going all the way back to its most prominent and controversial rabbi, Jonathan Edwards himself, considered by many to have been the town’s founder, in spirit if not also in deed.
Schoolyard Rules
by Jacob Margolies
Over fifty years ago, when I was six years old, I began spending all of my free time in the two adjacent schoolyards on the New York block where I lived. The larger one had basketball courts and a handball wall, and it took up the entire eastern half of an East Village block on 3rd Street. The smaller space was essentially a courtyard bounded by the north, south, and west wings of Public School 63.
What Do You See In Her?
by Celeste Kaufman
“What do you see in her?”
Damien sighed and shifted his weight away from me in bed. “I don’t want to talk about this again.”
“There has to be something.”
He turned a page of his book. “Sometimes it’s just a feeling.”
Deadly Ponies
by Craig Foltz
I.
Sulphur lacks evidence. It produces huge domes of salt which loom between us. There are reams of the earth’s crust, cut up into triangles and arranged on vintage ceramic plates. We develop a collection of books through a complex system of appropriation, while pink hazy clouds drift by outside the window.
In Line
by Christine Olivas
When Karen arrived, she responded to her client through the app—In line at Tim Ho Wan. You have nothing to worry about. Enjoy your afternoon! She then went to the end of the already-long queue, opened her portable chair, and sat down. Her legs were tired from the rush to arrive, and it was a temporary relief to be off her feet. To her right, a couple waited. Even though their hands interlocked, they were in the midst of debate, loudly whispering back and forth.