Christopher Shipman – Time and Place (Unhorsed)
Time and Place (Unhorsed) Most of the kids were home when it happened. All except my father and uncle— the oldest two tasked to help again on their grandfather’s modest farm. Chancellor—the grandfather on their mother’s side— exists only as a name for me: a constellation shipwrecked in a memory the sky can only vaguely […]
Dani Putney – Permafrost
Permafrost — I remember being marooned up Donner Pass, my dad at the wheel, his howls at us to stop the snow, the only danger inside a man cannibalizing his imports: children & wife. — On our way to Portland my best friend & I spun out, doused in moonlight, tiny ice flakes […]
Elina Petrova – Aryqi
Aryqi Jambyl, Kazakhstan, 1943. Moses – my father’s redheaded father, in his round glasses and broadcloth helmet saved since his years in the Red Cavalry – stood on the step of a GAZ-MM truck and spread his military trenchcoat into the space of the missing windshield to protect his wife and child against the slapping […]
Jonathan Pessant – As Safe as One Can Get in a Marriage
As Safe as One Can Get in a Marriage At the inmate barber shop. Inmate Robinson—pulls a straight razor. We joke how easy it would be for me to die sitting in this beat up barber’s chair. I remember how before his life sentence was overturned he’d joke with me about how hard it must […]
Benjamin Paloff – Of the Inequality that Lies Between Us
Of the Inequality that Lies Between Us The sap stains on the sidewalk are a spring—of blood—from winter’s broken limb—its sign—its song still waiting for its solo to sing, a mistake that repetition makes design. Our apps are hanging—on this happenstance. Our winners only win when it’s a lock. Our quivers quiver in their arrogance. […]
