I. passages barred narrowed like slaughterhouse chutes pinpoint paranoia bleeds staining & paralyzing into indecision an anxious buddha whispering don’t try over & over again fretfully inactive II. stacking seconds like...
Adam Robinson
Doors
I stepped out of an American Airlines plane with a brown leather duffel bag. Its contents: a dozen perfume bottles that had shattered when the satchel fell out of the overhead compartment mid-flight. The bottles held a precious collection of scents from my favorite...
How a Nuclear Accident Can Melt a Mixtape in Verona in 1986
Marco is the coolest boy in school. He wears a bomber jacket he bought on holiday in Los Angeles, and his hair is as shiny as Michael J. Fox's. When I grow up, I will marry Marco. That is unless I marry Michael J. Fox first.I bump into Marco at the library after...
Shining a light: multiple choice
1. When the lamp fails to turn on, will Gary:a) Investigate the switchb) Blame his wifec) Curse and sit in the dark 2. Will Gary’s wife, Eileen, upon being shouted at for the third time that evening for something that wasn’t her fault:a) Break down and cryb) Throw the...
Bacon Gouda Sandwich
I lift an empty Starbucks cup from the trash and that’s how I get a fifty-cent cup of coffee. I take it to the patio and feel like god damned royalty. I’m tripping pretty hard, and the sun is a soft, ripe plum suspended in the early morning sky.I’m a girl so I never...
Trapped in a World That Looks Like it Doesn’t Even Exist
The prison sits behind the apple orchard, bright curlicues of razor wire peeking through the leaves. It gives me a bad feeling but I have so many bad feelings and dark circles under my eyes. You don’t look so good, say my parents, friends, bus drivers, teachers, and...
Shotgun Wedding
~ after Persephone, Helen Lundeberg, 1950 The earth shivers and births a crack that fingers its way towards her toes. She realizes she hasn’t much time. Marry me, she says to the sky. Marry me, to the soil. To the rain, she gives welcome. To the stars, she offers a...
Spanish Moss: Personal, Historical, and Contemporary Facts and Usage
1 Spanish moss is not moss. It is a bromeliad; a cousin to pineapple. Though it loves moisture, it grows high up in trees where it is in constant danger of drying out. 2 My ancestors harvested the moss and used it to make blankets, rope, and stuffing for mattresses. 3...
Passion Cake
Mary and Mary’s mother and Mary’s mother’s mother Esther lived way upstate in a pale brown one-story house half a mile behind the interstate. Bright white shutters and the front porch swept clean, wildflowers dayglow-green-stemmed and radiant with health lounged in...
Grandmother Swamp
We were tobacco wives before we were grandmothers. Massaging thousand pound tropical blades to get the most nicotine out. Our childhoods were indistinguishable from one another’s as if they came from a factory. We were Scout or Effie or Mags, until our Christian...