Joshua

by Jordana Jacobs
Inside the ovaries of my husband’s grandmother, Sylvie, resided an egg the size of a grain of sand that would have been Hannah, my brilliant and accomplished mother-in-law.

Wapiti Nocturne

by Douglas W. Milliken
Mum died in the last days of October, leaving—among other things—a lot of fall-time chores incomplete.

Palloncino

by Lauren Lynn Matheny
Whatever the color, there had been a balloon. There had been a boy. And there had been a fall.

White Chrysanthemums

by Lori Nevole
My first girlfriend was Catholic, and thought no one would know she was a lesbian if she kept up a great manicure.

Hollows

by Tommy Dean
We’re lying in the middle of a cracked country road, fireflies blinking a message we’re too human to understand.

A Tragedy, A Process, An Adjustment

by Betsy Porter
She would be devastated if something happened to him—a car accident, for example, it’s entirely possible.

Aim

by Rebecca Foust
If Pastor Dale’s deer-stand was built as a place from which to squeeze a hair trigger, it also ladled up a grand view of the valley below, thick with hickory, sycamore, and elm.

Living With Lies

by Gita M. Smith
Whenever someone asks me, “So, what do you do?” I like to say, “I am a crash test dummy tech for the National Highway Traffic Safety folks.”

Clemency

by Cady Vishniac
A dead ringer for Josey. She sneezes as she walks into the pharmacy, and I look up from the newspaper I’m not supposed to be reading.

Rocket Night

by Alexander Weinstein
It was Rocket Night at our daughter’s elementary school, the night when parents, students, and administrators gather to place the least-liked child in a rocket and shoot him into the stars.