‘Mummy, look, a ghost did a painting.’ Maddie looks. On the kitchen table is a painting of a bucolic country scene. There is a farmhouse...

“En un beso, sabrás todo lo que he callado.” — Pablo Neruda I have two things I have to do today. A local car show, where I’m parking my...

The hatch in back my house leads to a crawl space. This crawl space, made of mud, winds wormlike, creeps, full of centipedes, and delves...

When Gran-Gran’s Pearl Necklace Goes Missing she narrows her eyes at my brother, Dusty. He’s forever misplacing stuff: LEGOs, socks,...

CW: unplanned pregnancy, termination, gaslighting/emotional manipulation, acute manic episode There’s a clamour, a buzzing like a hive....

"Before words can run out, something in the heart must die." —Alejandra Pizarnik Bella closed her eyes at the bar, and memory formed two...

I paid close attention to those who barely paused and those who honored my mother and took their time and pointed, laughed, or even cried...

Life’s been so-so, been good enough: I’m working at the Ken Foree Chrysler/Jeep down on Lankershim Blvd., selling lemons to...

When I drove for the Mano de Plata cartel, I had no interaction with the natural world. I walked on tile and cement, drank from aluminum...

After driving for many hours, Chloe and I step out of the car to approach the Grand Canyon. Both of us are smelly and stiff from the...

Dervis told me he wanted to “sleep on it” but after lunch, he’d already had an answer for me, so I guess he napped on his lunch break. He...

I’m not talking baby curls but full-Jesus, gleaming-waxen-flaxen, back-to-the-sixties, personal-best lush. The waves of maturity. Gray to...

Being a teacher does not pay well. Being a teacher’s aide pays even less. Mostly the kids are fine, just loud. It’s small town school....

That first time we screwed around with the possibility of insemination looming, I couldn’t focus. I kept thinking about the state of our...

It had been a month since Carol sent her friend Leona an email telling her about Brute, the dog Carol had recently rescued. She thought...

A writing program would’ve whipped me into shape. I wouldn’t be so damn flabby. My stories wouldn’t start in the wrong place, right at...

March 13, 1990: Elba, AL Seven old men formed a straight-back chair semicircle around the wood stove in the store front of Bill’s...

Greg Morris drove into a Lumber and Plumbing Supply Company's parking lot fast and halted abruptly in the nearest assigned loading spot....

“So go to your damn party,” Jill said. Sam gazed at Jill across the bed. Her words weren’t exactly a free pass, but Sam would take them....

Please forget about my name. It’s Constance Bytheway. I always felt like I stole it from an old lady when I was born. Perhaps, in time, I...