Grocery Store Performer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzGUkvhc2TU 1* I’d been recording co-workers reading poems in which I’d quoted them. My last interview was with Marty, who’d said, “Awareness is the…
Electronic Voice Phenomenon
I have a very early memory of being outside on a summer night, catching lightning bugs with some other kids. My grandmother’s fourth husband showed me how to make my…
Murmuration
Kernan splashed cold water on his face, dabbed it with a paper towel, and took a moment to appreciate his reflection in the stained mirror…
Emily as Each Star Wobbles
This story is true.I set a fire underneaththe first firesbecause I wantedto be donewith the dreamlessnessthat came with belief.I was only interestedin a heavenI could steal an eye from& I…
Whisky Sunrise
When it all began, Wesley was not yet a monster. He was a massage therapist. His apartment was small and tidy, his checkbook was balanced, and he called his parents…
Meet the Teachers Night
Meet the Teachers Night Our synagogue’s security service is employed by the father of a current student, the rabbi joked, “so they protect the kids as if they are their…
Mouth Almighty
She had a mouth like a ditch.She had a mouth like a jungle waror despot's manifesto.I loved her, like a dog loves stink,but her mouth, her mouth . . .Like…
A Hatchet and a Gun with Three Bullets
When she was fourteenshe’d dream of splitting her daddy’s head openwith a hatchet,then calmly shooting her mother, her sisterand her brother,one by one:going room to roomand doing each one inwith…
Power Tools
Samuel Johnson stares out his kitchen window, an old man brooding over a mug of coffee, alone, White, and angry. Beyond the window stands a…
The Reviled Sisters
“As you have chosen to stand with the sister who has scorned my trust, I place a curse on you both. While men may come and go, no woman shall…