Kristin DeMarco Wagner

Maintenance Entropy. Sheer entropy. The idea that everything naturally wants to devolve into chaos and decay, and that the very best you can do is to slow the rate at which it devolves. Bodies. Households. Families. There are millions of threats to peace and stability and order, to predictability and consistency and comfort. The fight…

Carson Pytell

White Elephants and/or Sacred Crows All is misery-fraught in the realm of earth,the work of fortune changes the world under the heavens.Here wealth is loaned. Here friends are loaned.Here man is loaned. Here family is loaned—And this whole foundation of the earth wastes away! Dick came home late again to a hot dinnerwhich his maid…

Jamie Cattanach

Brioche I took the bowl out of the cabinet for my yogurt, paused for a moment, put it back again. I poured a cup of coffee. I didn’t put any food into my pack. I knew what I was doing. There’s something about moving without eating. Something about making the ask of your body without…

Tom McAllister

1987 I have this incredibly vivid memory of being young and walking with my grandmother and my parents along Main Street in Manayunk, the Philly neighborhood where both my parents grew up. It’s a warm summer day and we’re going to Overbrook Water Ice, one of my favorite places in the world (someone later told…

Dandelion Prinsloo

A bike ride through Colonial Hills You peddle past the smell of sprinkler water on warm pavementYou are not depressedJust a little tiredAnd breathless from the peddling uphill with the weight of hot sun in your satchel. There are no shade trees lining Maint St.Not like in the nicer neighborhoodsThe only thing separating you from…

Patrick Nevins

Champ Evan Johns Youth Baseball Camps ran for one week at each Little League they visited. Evan gave no more instruction than any of the other half-dozen ex-ballplayers on staff—career minor leaguers who’d never been called up to the Big Show long enough to have a baseball card printed—but he’d played a few seasons in…

Ellis Elliott

OR I was afraid the housewould burn down,or that it wouldn’t.Fear that smelledof Jim Beamand Kent Regularsand felt like fistsof stinging nettlesin my twisting child-size gut. Never thinkingpast her hot ashesfalling from cigaretteto mattress. Thenit could be over, the flaregun of my flaminghouse would tellthe story I could not. Heard Trish and I could almost…

Lori D’Angelo

Down to the Skin That summer, more creamer was the solution to everything. When they first cut my hours at work, I sat down and poured myself some coffee. But the coffee was cheap, and it didn’t taste right. So I added in some creamer. The creamer was Matt’s, but he didn’t mind if we…

Shana Raphaeli

Philomena The cool wind pricks James’s face and his eyes tear up as he stands by the side of the road. He uses his free hand to dry his cheek, grazing the sharp stubble on his jaw. The diner restroom where he has been grooming himself was occupied that morning and James had no patience…