Mark Brazaitis I didn’t expect the silver-haired man in the hardware store in Lujan de Cuyo to ask me why I needed twenty meters of rope. If I had been prepared for the question, I would have answered with a believable lie: To lasso a bull. To play a game of tug-of-war. To hang a … Continue reading Aquaholic →
Scott Ely Prentiss lay in a hammock on the porch of the house belonging to his girl friend Danielle, a bottle of beer in his hand, and thought of how much he was going to miss living here. The wide cypress-planked front porch, the low-sloping tin roof the rain rattled against … Continue reading No Shade →
Thomas McConnell Part I Now that the history of their country had come to an end he liked to tell the boy stories of the brave little Czech nation and night after night Aleks liked to hear though the hour stretched his mouth into yawns. When they had come to … Continue reading 1940 Part I →
Du Fu was writing the impossibility of spring flowers, and I bore hours spent waiting for others to finish their lessons—a schedule of tasks I did not set for myself. The coldest stretch of winter, an absurdity, and me the necessary vehicle, all tires and full seats. Once, I had a yard and garden. Flowers … Continue reading “Peonies in Winter” by Lisa Higgs →
by Christina Baumis Lake Freeman was lowered, to aid in endangered bivalve recovery. Sheepnose mussels, Plethobasus cyphyus, elongated, oval shell, with thick, solid valves, light yellow to a dull yellowish brown periostracum. A short-term brooder with an unknown sexual maturity. Egg fertilization at the beginning of summer followed by glochidial, parasitic larvae, release later in … Continue reading Uncle Bob Told Me →
by Linda Briskin I remember the first time I floated free in a swimming pool. My partner Edith, herself a mermaid, had taught me to swim after two years of torturous lessons. I was forty-six. For most of my life I’d been terrified of the water. As a very young child, I was dropped in … Continue reading I Remember →
by Harris Walker The travel agent finally lifted her head from the ream of paper scattered over her desktop, where countless timetables and schedules had been shuffled around with numerous confirmations of reservations, estimates and disbursements. Within the opening of her hijab, wrapped around her forehead and both cheeks, her eyes sparkled with satisfaction and … Continue reading To the South Are Banana Plantations →
by Christie Marra October 2018 The ghostly blue bottom of the flame rose then sputtered out. Regina turned toward the pile—large logs tic-tac-toed on the bottom, skinny, splintering kindling on top. Click-click-click. No spark. Click-click-click-click-click. Nothing. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the matchbook. Maybe she could get a match lit long enough to … Continue reading Living with Wolves →
by Matt Izzi His wife eyed him over her piña colada as he entered the hotel bar holding the hand of a girl no older than four. “Didn’t we agree to run all kidnappings by each other?” Peter forced a grim smile. The girl’s mother, he explained, had collapsed on the pool steps, struck her … Continue reading Awful Big, Awful Good →
by Cody Smith Summer 2016 So much of those summers scraped against cypress groves as we paddled the pirogue and prayed against storms. The mud-bogged Catahoula Lake bank would swallow James Larry’s pickup like an egg in a snake’s throat. Days ended the same: heat showers, catfish pliers and fillet knife in my hand, my … Continue reading Delta Summers →