I am four-years-old. Sitting on the edge of the porcelain tub while my mother paints on her cat-eyes. It is not enough to watch her in the reflection of the tri-fold mirror. I want her to face me, to feel her arms around me, to squeeze me until bedtime. Instead, she sprays her sweeping up-do…
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“George Murata found some pearls here in the lake,” said Otis. He burst into the bar where I was resting drinking a beer after a long day working on a gasser at Caddo Lake. “Who the hell is George Murata?” I drawled. I looked at Otis, his face was black with oil…
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Aphis stands beside her Sister-Queens, smelling the pheromones released by the incoming messenger: fear, anger, pain. Craning her head, she touches antennae with Optera and Emmet. Their anxiety rises with hers. “I’ll go.” Emmet, always the bravest, steps forward. “No, wait.” Aphis extends her front left leg, halting Emmet. “She comes now. See?” …
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She wears a fur coat when the thermostat reads ninety, yet she can’t seem to stop herself from running through the dandelion littered grass. She runs through the field with the carefree indifference of the children who trotted here months prior, causing the white globes of seedlings to explode and scatter in the stagnant air.…
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At first, I thought my apartment was being robbed. I got home from work, rode the elevator up to the fifth floor of my apartment building, and walked down the hall. Usually, by this point, I would hear my cocker spaniel, Jerry, panting and pawing behind the door, eager to prove her love. Instead, I…
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“These are the Days” by Timothy Parrish recounts romance from a unique perspective. He is a writer and critic living somewhere in California.
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In the early morning, before the sun rose and the town awoke, he stood barefoot on the cold mountain stone, awaiting his fate. It was here, high above the artifice and humanity below, atop the bluffs and outstretched overlook, that he stared at spear tips and determined faces ready to block his salvation. He was…
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One thing can lead to another, just like how one dish piles on top. “Dishes” By John Brady illustrates another side of marriage.
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A conversation between strangers feeds more than just dinner at the diner in “‘Til the Morning Comes” By Michael Tuberdyke, a current undergraduate in English and woodworker.
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