Mom knocked on my door after school and told me we were having dinner at 6. We always ate dinner, but when we had dinner, that meant at the table. With napkins and an important conversation. “Who died?” I asked when I sat down. “That’s not funny,” Mom said. “Grandpa.” Gracie Lyle is an emerging […]
A tuft of her hair sits in my drawer. She asked that I cut it so it wouldn’t get in the way as she died. We stood in the bathroom, sharing our last mother-daughter moment. Catching each other’s eyes in the mirror, we smiled: a final gift to each other. Melanie Stern is a journalist […]
Andrea and Carolyn are possessed by alter egos Princess Ariel and Charlie when inebriated – but it has been years since they were both drunk together. Image generated with OpenAI I landed in the middle of a sweaty dance floor, jerking around to a song I didn’t recognize. The dancing lights, pulsing music, and taste […]
Adam’s shirts and pants were hung in tight rows with cardboard protectors. The officer had never seen cardboard protectors. “OCD,” I said. He’d seen OCD. Said the stress could make a heart attack plausible, even at 38. I found him. The neighbors heard me scream. No reason to suspect me. Michelle Meyer is a poet […]
I would like a breast pocket to hold my boarding pass and penso I may eat a plate of fries withthe certainty that nothing of mine mightjust slip away, beyond reach, andI would be leftquestioning if anything—this body even—has ever belonged to me. Emily Mathis is a writer and dancer. Her essay, “Men Smoking,” was […]
Branches above us let loose a sprinkling of helicopter seeds. Arms stretching up, seizing at spinning dancing things, we hold magic in our hands, as if we could keep still this moment, to grasp fully, like we weren’t ourselves some early sapling thing, small and green, not yet set solid. Kate E. Lore is a […]
It has a tart rhubarb base for the puckerand a sweet, red kiss of strawberry that brings me backfor the next bite.It’s more Oscar Wilde than Marcel Proust, though I confess to having read neither—I just know it when Itaste it.Mustn’t forget the milk! Stephen Tilden is retired in Brooklyn and enjoys writing while something […]
Guest-edited by Fernando A. Flores, featuring new stories by Yvette DeChavez, Julián Delgado Lopera, Carribean Fragoza, Alejandro Heredia, Carmen Maria Machado, Ruben Reyes Jr., and Gerardo Sámano Córdova. Yvette DeChavez, “Saint Gloria” I’d only hung out with Ana and Margarita a few times, and always with Rogelio, but I hated the way they talked, their […]
Our bodies melded together as we danced real slow. His hands were warm and laced with mine. The music was low on the radio—it was our song. We were a party of two in the kitchen, swaying to the beat. Kissing. Laughing. Burning the tater tots in the oven. Brenda Lee Carlson is a writer […]
I crash back onto Earth, a speck of stardust amidst the enormity of the galaxy. I was once “human,” living in tumultuous ignorance with no memories and a fake identity. I only have one day. How am I going to convince them that this place isn’t home? It’s a prison. Katie lives on a farm […]
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