I grew up going to school with Stiller, but never knew him well. The way you know everyone in a small town, but don’t know them well. We first met in middle school. Through junior high and the first two years of high school, Stiller […]
Like Father, Like Son, and So On by David La Ponsie
“Rivers ebb through my heart. Rivers of regret, love, passion and fears. Rivers rush through my heart. Rivers of blood, sweat, tears and fire. Blood pools in my heart. A pool shared by ancestors of past and future. And we all share something small, and […]
And When the Boat Goes Down by Jennifer Todhunter
All I can think is, this water isn’t bad, not cold not hot, the reeds, they don’t bother me, they’re like ribbons on the ballet shoes I wore as a girl, the pink satin wrapped around my ankles and calves, and I consider twirling on […]
Wollstonecrafted, How to cure a hangover, and Ama Cocina by Carolee Bennett
Wollstonecrafted She keeps the postcard from Universal City, though she’s never been. Acquired at a flea market, the image of a towering man dressed as Frankenstein has been stuck on the fridge in every rental she’s had since she lost the baby in ‘98. […]
Reassurance From a Seagull by Claudia Lundahl
I was dreaming about the fire again. The rich, nutty fragrance of linseed oil and its odd companion – turpentine. A smell I used to love but which now terrifies me. I see it then, the crackling fire crawling towards me with flames licking at […]
Glue by Emily Harrison
The console table is more than a console table, but you don’t know that yet, not when Ma says you can put it in your bedroom, if you want. It’s only gathering dust in the loft. Pop built the console table for Ma’s eighteenth birthday. […]
One Left Shoe by Susan Triemert
Just like I could rely on my older brother William to drink straight from the milk carton back then, I could count on Friend. At 3:00 sharp, Friend, as she told me to call her, would meet me after school to walk me home. After […]
When You Look Up, You are Surrounded by Light by Alexandra Grunberg
Space Mountain means something more this time, which is saying a lot, considering how much Disney World in general means to me. Homesick, a word I worried would worm its way inside me, a disease I was warned about before picking myself up and dropping […]
Montreal Triptych by Karen Zey
You and me, babe, against the world. I recite the charm against contagion at the start of every neighbourhood walk. As my husband and I leave the yard, I reach for his hand and say the words. If I forget, he stops on the sidewalk […]
More Pennies by Yash Seyedbagheri
After Dad leaves for another drinking session, my older sister Nancy and I look for snack money under ripped sofas and Dad’s second-hand futon, which smells like sweat and stale feet. I’m thirteen, she’s sixteen. We dig beneath every cushion, craning our necks. We look […]
Are you afraid of the dark? by Marise Gaughan
For a moment in my life, I was scared of everything. I was spending the summer in France. Using money I should have been saving for a mortgage, or whatever, to live right on the beach and order fish stews every night. I was, to […]
Sofia by Catherine Bloomer
In the haze of twilight, she felt both confident and then, suddenly, at a loss when she tripped over a pile of garbage on Broadway. It was light enough for her to see, but dark enough that in this moment she had been careless, not […]
