Mark Doyle
Mark Doyle THE CONSOLATIONS OF WATERLOO SUNSETS This is a song about finding yourself alone and being okay with that. This is a song about finding hope in endings. [0:00 descending bassline] One night in Washington, DC, my…
Kale Hensley
Kale Hensley I RECKON WITH MY FEET The first time a girl witnesses her toes in the mouth of another, she would not have anticipated it happening during a game at church. It is complicated. I use that word in…
Samodh Porawagamage / All the Salty Sand in Our Mouths
by Samodh Porawagamage Excerpts from All the Salty Sand in Our Mouths TO COUSIN G. We’ve all grown up and you are nowhere close to schooling, so late that, even I, the youngest of the lot, know…
John Rolfe Gardiner / Tree Men
by John Rolfe Gardiner TREE MEN You’re as likely to be hit twice by lightning on a Monday as see a wood-chipper pull a man into its maw. Rare, as well, is the member of an arborist crew who hasn’t…
Jill Sisson Quinn / Two Hours
by Jill Sisson Quinn Two Hours They had spent three days under the rubble, and during that time her mistake of letting the dog get fat suddenly became an asset. The warmth emanating from Silas’s back, which was pressed against…
Annabelle Smith / As Frog Is My Witness
by Annabelle Smith As Frog Is My Witness This is how the summer begins. Mama and I sit in the parlor. A cigarette hangs from her lips, smudged carmine like the clay smeared beneath my toenails from playing in the…
Peter Kessler / Surprise Party
by Peter Kessler Surprise Party A gift of the liberal policies of the Dukakis years permitted my mother, recovering from addiction, to receive training as a nurse. Many mornings she stood before the mirror in her bedroom, adjusting her white…
Mary Wood / The Celestial Dreams of Buckie and Dot
by Mary Wood THE CELESTIAL DREAMS OF BUCKIE AND DOT The day after Caroline found out that Miles died, she quit her job and moved to the desert. People always said don’t make any decisions right after a death,…
Steve Wing/ My Green Job
by Steve Wing MY GREEN JOB I stumbled into it. My sister’s friend had been dating this Environmental Engineer who needed somebody part-time, and I needed something part-time, so I said, What the hell? This was late in 1991,…