My mother finds me still in bed, curled into a ball. She strokes my hair and says, “Soon, you’ll be a grown up.” I only groan. “It’s not so bad,” she says. Since my mother does not recognize her own … Continue reading
The Golden Key Flash Fiction Open 2017 Honorable Mention, judged by Carmen Maria Machado Marié, her back against the Honda’s passenger door. Marie, her front against Marié’s front. Marie pushes and Marié lets herself be pushed, the … Continue reading
The Golden Key Flash Fiction Open 2017 Honorable Mention, judged by Carmen Maria Machado She was indigestible – this, a gift from her godmother, the one with whose lips danced around wine cups. The blessing was blurted out because she … Continue reading
When tigers used to smoke, there were houses where death didn’t come. When night fell, fog poured in from the woods, and the decrepit inhaled sweet purple steam. Cheeks smoothed as if exiting a long spa, and posture restored itself … Continue reading
I was given no contract to sign, no disclaimer listing the drawbacks of being human. No one told me that my tongue would begin to split at the slightest emotional trigger, that my skin would start to wrinkle and fold … Continue reading
Oregon, 1927 A bowler hat is seen in flight Volunteer firefighters snap a photo The hat drifts off into evergreens * In 1952 the hat visits Passaic, New Jersey * 1960: the hat goes on holiday to Italy with two … Continue reading
She saves spent light bulbs, wraps blown bulbs tenderly in tissue saved from birthday parties, stows them in stacked boxes, carefully labeled as close as she can get to the exact time the tungsten fragmented. She holds a service for … Continue reading
I came upon Lydia in the garden, plucking her one-eyed cat’s glass eyeball from the soil. Flakes from the white winter were burrowing into the ground, into the blood- stream of the earth. Bluebells reflected in her eyes. Twigs snapped … Continue reading
A hand, eggshell white, hangs over the chair’s arm in a stillness that draws out the dead. Where before she seemed ordinary, now she flickers as though lit with a faulty bulb. The room perches on the rise of each … Continue reading
You want me to tell you what’s going to happen? Grease ice will form first, then slush. We must be careful not to bury too suddenly those who are very cold. A woman in Norway skiing in the mountains fell … Continue reading