Excerpts

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…

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…

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…

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…

by Kent Kosack                                                                           …

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,…

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,…

by Dylan Boyer Killing the Buddha and Eating Him    “YOUR MIND IS A NIGHTMARE THAT HAS BEEN EATING YOU: NOW EAT YOUR MIND.” -Kathy Acker   The summer was feral. Slusarz was in town, and we went with Matt…

by Beth Brown Preston A Dream Where the snow blinding, white lay cross the fields so thick and deepwe could step thigh high into a drift and the sharp red glintof a redbird’s wing flashed above our bowed heads.Or while…