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In the backseat on long car rides home from my grandmother’s house in southern Illinois, I cataloged light sources in the dark: gazing at flare towers burning above oil wells, watching the taillights of faster cars shrink to pinpoints, following the sweep of flood lamps up the domes of concrete grain silos.
By Steve EdwardsSeptember 2022How can I find a way to praise / it? Do the early inventors & embracers / churn with regret?
By Elizabeth BradfieldSeptember 2022To live long enough in this world means to learn to nestle the twins of grief and hope in your arms. I tuck the bottle of fertility medication next to the black dress I bought for my mother’s funeral. We plant a white pine in the yard, in view of the window of our empty nursery.
By Jacquelyn GillSeptember 2022A fifth-grade bully, a blossoming romance, a late-night crash
By Our ReadersSeptember 2022A Thousand Words features photography so rich with narrative that it tells a story all on its own.
September 2022I learned how to be a man by modeling the behavior of my father, and then other men. What I don’t know is how my son has modeled me, and that’s creating a commotion in my heart.
By Gary PercesepeAugust 2022My chest, which was beginning to grow round in the wrong places, had to be hidden under a T-shirt no matter how hot or sweaty I became. Out in the desert I had to squat behind the cover of creosote bushes to pee. At home in my family’s Airstream I was my parents’ youngest daughter, but up in the paloverde I felt like one of the boys.
By Zoë BossiereAugust 2022Most days I stick to the periphery — / produce and eggs and chicken and cheese — / but tonight I am buying peanut butter, / which here is inexplicably placed / with the popcorn and chips.
By Caleb NolenAugust 2022It must have been forty years ago, / my brother and sisters, our mom and dad, / gathered around the fat television / before our Saturday supper / to watch my skinny father / make the evening news.
By John PochJuly 2022Personal, political, provocative writing delivered to your doorstep every month—without a single ad.
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