Scruffy little five inch plastic horse He didn’t much like it in the store But only $1.99 & it might fit in his toy pickup… At home among shiny race cars and red siren fire trucks Suddenly he starts talking … Continued

Some dark nights I drift out my window, Where the streets are long strings of red and white pearls, Each one humming. And sometimes I’ll get as far as the outskirts. There the hills clench the city Like a burning … Continued

the background needs revising you can return to your hometown —Bei Dao So long as there’s a hometown you’re not free —Ko Un   When you say hometown, you mean the place where an old girl friend I hurt in … Continued

I watched a woman fix a roadside shrine just before the rain came. Blue and purple plastic flowers thinned by summer sun and bent weird by winter. Coat hangers built into a cross. Nailed into a swamp oak. Ya know. … Continued

In the garden planted by the church group, tomato plants struggle, radishes, too, leaves withered in the streaks of sun, against the broad-leafed vines that crawl along the moist dirt as the prickly stalks invade the fenced-in plot. Rabbits eat … Continued

It has been nearly thirty years since Greta visited Scarborough Harbor, and it’s completely changed. Until her little brother’s death, she vacationed every childhood summer in this once-quaint coastal Maine town. Now, shops line sidewalks like shark’s teeth while tanned … Continued

to hide the wooden brace, slight limp. Darker than inside a locket, more pungent— what wood wouldn’t love to live there, thinks Frankie, the neighbor boy who’s never said a word to her. He watches Sarah flick her foot through … Continued

When the glaciers armied through Florida, like anywhere else, they left a mess of rocks and sand and animal bones behind them. They did this peacefully over a long period of time, and the animals felt peaceful as they died … Continued

1. Winterlight on Will Morgan. It always disoriented him, the fact that the day had endured despite time spent inside a cavernous space, that the afternoon’s last gasp was still bright enough to sting. A walk through glass doors and … Continued

Bird perches in the strings of flesh and sings of the dead. What we all do. Same day I heard the story about the boy. Same day the weather changed, dark clouds all along the ridge. Where they found the … Continued

Two drinks in, we’re complaining. Jem wants a second baby, “But who the hell will gestate it?” Her husband Paul is a stay-at-home dad. I’m regretting ordering my Gibson. The cocktail onion reminds me of a bobbing eyeball: slimy and … Continued

Dearest, God, I have brought you the world. Inside are the beginnings of the Earth, the great cities, the moon circling the stars above the plains. And here is the universe as you intended it, all of a piece. Please … Continued

Translated from the Russian by Bryon MacWilliams Various things can be demanded from an actor. There is some kind of balance between that which can be expected, creatively, and that which can be imposed by a director. In movies an … Continued

i. Olfactory Cinema Certain smells stop you mid-step, in close-eyed smile – long-lost memories project on the backs of your eyelids ii. The Merits of Self Awareness Discerning depth is abstruse when viewing a valley from above iii. … Continued

Memoir of a Summer Day on the Contrescarpe - for Walter Cummins Place de la Contrescarpe is a square, a circle really, of cafés – Café de la Contrescarpe, Cafe des Artistes, Café des Chopes, recently renamed Café Delmas – … Continued

1 I was told my proximity to the toxin would promote changes to my thinking, speech, and behavior. My first thought was, of course, for the child, the little girl, but graceful, silent figures in white suits flitted to her … Continued

A centipede, waddling across one’s floor, striped like fruit-stripe gum with elegant tail wisps trailing behind— perfected fluid marching of leg after regimented leg like the rippling synchronicity of a pianist practicing Czerny exercises up and down the keyboard. The … Continued

I didn’t choose the Plum trees.              That first year they didn’t have the sense to not bear fruit. We didn’t have the sense to feel blessed. How we picked each plum              prematurely in hope of keeping everything in order according … Continued

Jimmy is funny. Jimmy is funny and all the girls laugh like rattled chains. And you are twelve and laughing at Jimmy, hoping God will be sweet. Let you be the sweat sticking to the shadow of his red hair. … Continued

In the corporate world where progress relies on the positive spinning of indisputable facts, Brad feels himself becoming stilted. Cubicle. Textured gray walls. White push pins. Office calendar. Ergonomic setup. All these things equal a boring office job and no … Continued