My new husband’s daughter comes into our bedroom just before dawn.
Tooth by Whitney Scharer
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Issue #9
The things taken, the things left behind by Jason Jackson
Some nights, you lie awake and think about those times, about how the things which happened to you back then can become more like stories written by strangers.
And So She Did by Jacquelyn Bengfort
A fact about mayflies you may not know: Mayflies act like canaries in a coal mine, only for fresh and unpolluted waters.
Canon by Lynn Pattison
Nicole’s doctor says she has a portion of intestine that’s twisted in over itself, a knot that needs fixing. No inkling of what he’ll find.
Images by Diane Simmons
They are pencil drawings mostly – seven or eight of them hanging on the wall above Helen’s bed. Some are intricate, drawn with a care that must have required several sittings.
Saturday Night at the BK Lot by Danielle Holmes
The pickup bounces with the weight of our bodies, radio bass buzzing along the rusted metal bed where we stand and shake against each other, their knees against our thighs, their hard denim crotches at our bubblegum, cheerleader backsides.
When Mary Dances by Rachel Smith
Mary eats only bread on a Monday. It’s one of those eat your way to a 6-inch-waist remedies she saw in a magazine.
What to Keep by Jay Merill
Sian sits at a table in the cafeteria studying the snapshot of him. Byrne as he was. He himself is absent but the image is right here:
Out of Reach by Steve Cushman
My father and I stood in the field behind our house, a cigarette between his lips, playing catch.
#masculinity by Rhona Millar
He rubbed weird oil on his hands from a tin after working on one of the many old bangers that cluttered our garage and driveway.
Two Micros by Daryl Scroggins
This was in the days before people would break a window to get a kid out of a hot car.
No Coming Back by Dzvinia Orlowsky
Like a strong wind, Frank took to knocking nests out of trees. They were always empty, and he was damned if he’d let them forewarn the day he’d find himself living alone.
Minnows by Stephen V. Ramey
We used to squat by the tub and scoop minnows from our bathwater by the dozens. Shelly liked to eat them whole, but I was strictly catch and release. She called it a cruel kindness to submit them to such treatment.
Darling by Erin Lyndal Martin
It was her fourth day off the meds and the second week of his mindfulness phase.
Mushrooms, for example by Francine Witte
Mildred never cared much for them. Says they are too much like men, and you can’t always smell the poison.