Tag: Issue 19
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A Movement Day
wake into your body s’ soft ache watch as the day unhinges its jaw promises to devour this quiet want how quickly the light empties how small the animal’s cage can you see the darkness gathering a murmuration of arrows overhead
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A Little Family History
Characters: Mya, 20’s Dana, 50’s – 60’s Jay, 50’s – 60’s Setting: Dana and Jay’s House, Dinnertime “Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.” ~ Oscar Wilde (MYA is having dinner with her parents DANA and JAY at their home.…
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Gun Story
Characters: MAE: The mother of teenagers, late 30s to 40s. Often serious, but witty. Not rich, but gets by. A devoted parent who has had a rough few years. LLOYD: A middle-aged dad of two teen girls. Probably blue collar. Gregarious, a man’s man. He probably laughs at jokes he knows he shouldn’t and thinks…
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The Heart of the Matter
A wild entry from Helen this morning, positively raging she was and without any preliminaries. From the get-go there was something clearly the matter. Helen had entered the kitchen with her shopping trolley, which she kept inside the main entry door. Ordinarily, when Helen needed to fetch it she came in from her room and…
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Still Birds
2005 Bruce Kuipers found the baklava on his porch, plated and wrapped. It sat on the table, under the eight-point rack of antlers, and his retriever sniffed at it with a wagging tail. The plate was heavier than he expected, and he nearly spilled its contents kicking off his sandy shoes in the mudroom. In…
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The Leg
I. This morning a common cellar spider fell into the scalding water of my shower. Already half-lathered by the time I spotted the pitiful creature failing to scramble up the corner of the tub, I hesitated to intervene lest I do more harm than good. Touching the delicate wet body might be like trying to…
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Wild Foxes
At first, when I held you in my hands, you drew into your shell. But, after some time, you stuck out your head and looked at me with these tiny, ringed eyes. I petted you and asked if you could feel my touch because I read that turtle shells are like skin, living cells crackling…
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On Agenting
I started out with myself (who else?). Andy and I wrote a textbook proposal for a publisher who requested it, and when they turned it down, our advisor said, “It’s a good proposal; you should go out with it.” So we did. This was before email. Before we knew it we had two publishers bidding…
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