on a kid listening to green day’s “dookie”
Francesca Tangreti
i wasn’t girl girl girl i was a plastic-wrapped pack of crayola putty in lurid blue
Raising a Boy on Your Own
John Grey
“When the boy tries on your dresses, is he imitating you?”
A Brief Defense of Jack Gilbert
Bruce Morton
On god, poets, and who has their hand on the throttle.
Permission to not be legible to everyone
H. Felix Chau Bradley, in conversation with Arielle Burgdorf
“What I’m often trying to do is to write about mundane things, or at least commonly experienced things, in a way that is eerie or strange.”
Times were Different Then
Dianne C. Braley
A past etched into her father’s skin, and a connection so much more than skin deep.
A Story about Floating
Tanya Castro
“My daddy was a real cowboy,
his horse was as real to the eye
as his horse was as black to the lake
at night”
Live Broadcast
Eric Abalajon
“The one that brought that melody with her to Toronto is also a heroine.”
The Chocolate Gospels
James Seawel
“Mom would have drank with the Catholics and danced with the Methodists if the elders had forbidden Moose Tracks ice cream.”
We paint the walls red
Jill Jepson
They wanted a change, but this wasn’t the change they expected.
It’s mid-March in Boston
Anahita Vieira
“But listen — no one asked you to reconcile the beauty and the horror.”
Colors of ownership, and other approximations of happiness
Reena Kapoor
“Her grandmother scolding her to scrub hard as she bathed. Wash it off! Rub turmeric. Fair & Lovely cream. Nothing worked.”
The Woman Who Hated Bacon
Stuart Watson
“It was a small thing that made life worth living.
It was a small thing that drove Mom nuts.”