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He sits on the mattress on the floor and unties his sneakers carefully. He spreads his laces to the sides of his shoes, as if they deserved respect.
By Ellery AkersAugust 2021But then I accidentally bite into one of the sour, acrid parts of quarantine. It’s easy to forget, when you live four hundred miles away, that your mother’s temper can be sparked by something as benign as family movie night or a run-in with the Hertz rental-car dealership.
By Emma DaleAugust 2021August 2021Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Waiting tables, dyeing textiles, separating goats in heat
By Our ReadersAugust 2021One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking — a detour, error.
By Hermann HesseAugust 2021and Ronnie says Robert Hayden got / it right, a whipping be like that — “the face that I no longer / knew or loved” — damn, that’s it, right there and / Ronnie doesn’t blame his mama for beating him so bad, but / maybe she could have kept her pipe in the car and then maybe / he never would have ended up in a foster home
By Laurie Rachkus UttichAugust 2021After this friend left, I excused myself to go to the bathroom, where I shut the door and fell to my knees, shaking and crying. I wished that my brother had been different. And I wished that I had been more forgiving and compassionate. I wished that everything between us had been different. I was on that floor for a while.
By Marc InmanAugust 2021Some of these children do need help, but is this the right type of help? Over the years counselors have been charged with sexual abuse, physical abuse, and predatory behavior.
By Finn CohenAugust 2021My son sprinted to each traffic light / in his black hat and dark Sabbath suit / while the elderly congregation two miles away / waited for him to help lead morning prayers.
By Yehoshua NovemberJuly 2021It’s not as though I was going on dates, gorging / on the daily bread of sex, before the governor told us all / to stay home.
By Jane HilberryJuly 2021Personal, political, provocative writing delivered to your doorstep every month—without a single ad.
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