Featured Works: Week of Dec. 25 (New Year)
The goal, for each new year, is to learn from our past so that we do not repeat our mistakes. Our contributors this week gaze into the past, future and present, helping us navigate a new path. “Yet Another Year” by Bibhu Padhi looks backward — and forward — with a mix of hope and trepidation. “The World As It Could Be” by Nathan Large imagines a dystopian future. “Against Black Riders from the Desert” by Henry Goldkamp contemplates the nature of existence over a round of...
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after Stephen Crane’s “Black Riders Came from the Sea” A half-full phenomenon— endless russets of dirt horizoned & drinking generous, bottomless blue. Godlings with shakers sing the chink & clink of hard wet ice. This doleful infinity meant no harm. It is only wight in your eyes, or blood from some tongue. Our sadness wrings the mop -up of the cropless & the cloudless. Life is delicious, slow-cooked at 98° F. Wedged onto God’s rim— a lemon wheel coated in bitters, some...
Read MoreThe World As It Could Be
They lay on the hood of Joe’s car, Joe and Tom, and stared at the cloudy sky. Shapes rolled past overhead, spirals and angles of white, words written across the dawning blue. They read what the sky had to say, content for a time just to lie still. After a while, Tom spoke up. The dreams were troubling him again. Joe was the only one who would even listen. If Tom didn’t say something, he would burst; if he said something to the wrong person, they’d label him crazy. “I had more dreams, Joe.” “Why am I not surprised? Weird ones, like...
Read MoreYet Another Year
Another year is lost. Another looking forward in the hope that all roads would lead to the desired end. Another face, which had almost found itself as if for the first time in its own place. Only the increasing winter has stayed through a quiet change in dates. A winter more harsh than remembering the nearest things, more sure of itself than every kind of foretelling. I have been waiting for yet other things to sail into the frozen cavities of the mind—the morning noises of children perspiring in spite of the cold even as the grandmothers pray for their own...
Read MoreFeatured Works: Week of Nov. 20 (Thanksgiving)
This week in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving, a holiday for food, family, and a host of hang-ups. Our contributors this week touch on one of those troubles, namely family friction. “Pet” by Rob Hunter reimagines an animal nuisance as a member of the family. “Approximately 465 Words of Sterling Wisdom” by Janice Canerdy offers tips to figures out if you’re annoying. “Past, Present, Popcorn” by Brett Riley links the making and consumption of a snack food with family...
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As a child in the 1970s, I often felt out of place, as if I were a weight hung around the household’s neck. I loved sports, but I equally loved board games, comic books, literature above my reading level, and Star Wars memorabilia. My parents never discouraged these pursuits and, indeed, funded some, but they never really understood them, either. My father and I played football and baseball in our yard and hunted deer and squirrel in the local forests, but if I wanted to play Monopoly or talk in depth about Spider-Man, I was on my own. My mother seemed harried, always on the...
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