thwack

thwack

DISTRACTED by Pat Jameson

Pat JamesonDISTRACTED That afternoon was the afternoon I followed the starlings across town and accosted a distracted driver, but before that, me and the other irregulars were at Joe’s explaining to a new recruit how you could tell whether you…

5 TIPS FOR REVISING by Andrea Caswell

Andrea Caswell5 TIPS FOR REVISING Revision is an important but often-dreaded stage of the writing process. Having to revise can feel like facing a harsh reality after the freedom of free-writes, and of first drafts bursting with inspiration. But if…

FLIGHT PATHS by Jacqueline Ellis

Jacqueline EllisFLIGHT PATHS December 2021: I give my dad a project: tell me what you remember about making wine with your friend Franco, back when we lived in Peterborough. The task distracts him while he waits for biopsy results. Suspected…

SAHARA DREAMS by A. J. Jacono

A. J. JaconoSAHARA DREAMS The first night of the tour, after the guides had hitched the camels and secured the mess tent and laid out the steaming tagines and plates of couscous, Cash decided to make some friends because he…

WITNESS TO THE ARIA by Meg LeDuc

Meg LeDucWITNESS TO THE ARIA A sculpture soars in the sky of Meijer Gardens, red as a hummingbird heart, rising over the pinprick of a groundskeeper below. Of the painted scarlet steel of his public art, Alexander Liberman once said,…

church by Erin Pesut

Erin Pesutchurch There came a time about three years after we moved to Vermont when I decided I wanted to go to church again. Really what I wanted was to go to church at Christmas. Really what I wanted was…

MAGIC WINDOW by Anne Panning

Anne PanningMAGIC WINDOW (CHASING HOME) What did you think when you cupped your hands against the glass and peered inside? Did you think the old wavy Victorian glass was a portal to the past? Did you see your mother in…

THE PHANTOM BABY by A. C.

A. C.THE PHANTOM BABY The baby dies on garbage day. It’s a Monday, very cloudy, with a sixteen percent chance of rain. There’s a little cough, a little spit, then nothing. The collection truck comes on time. It was not…

PISSER CLAM by Yujia Li

Yujia LiPISSER CLAM Learned today that clams break with the slightest pressure between forefinger and thumb. I jumped at the crack, admiring a broken shell, gray and soft and more vulnerable than I— a bed of them clamoring northeast, pressed…

SHAPES by Meg Pokrass

Meg PokrassSHAPES He is kissing his wife goodnight on the cheek as she slips off to the spare bedroom with Tylenol and a hot water bottle. “I smell like a seal,” she says. Before that, she’d been at her surfing…

THE TATTOO by Wendy MacIntyre

Wendy MacIntyreTHE TATTOO Wita’s mother had a tattoo that colonized her left forearm. Six words, sinister and enigmatic: “Keep me safe and kill me.” The dyes that needled this sentence into her flesh were sea-green and Prussian blue. Wita was…

PARAÍSO by Mark Williams

Mark WilliamsPARAÍSO Henry Hoover is in his bedroom, mastering the G-chord on his Martin acoustic, when his father walks in and brings up Science Camp. With Henry’s sophomore year of high school behind him and all of summer ahead, he…

SHUTTING DOWN by Thomas Johnson

Thomas JohnsonSHUTTING DOWN Stevie watched the road. Driving right now made him nervous. Cars moved tightly in each direction on the highway. Stevie’s wife, Ruth, was next to him in the passenger seat, and their friend, Helen, shared the backseat…

BULLY BOYS by Gay Degani

Gay DeganiBULLY BOYS Her brothers are rough-and-tumble types roaming the streets after Mother and Father go to bed. They are expert at sneaking out, know every creaky floorboard, every groan in the front door hinge. Robbie greased their window sash.…

RED SUN by Mary Lewis

Mary LewisRED SUN Using the full twelve-foot length of the handle, Jake pushed the floater over the last slab of new concrete, then pulled it slowly back towards him. This was his favorite part of the job because after all…

RANDOM PRECISION by Caleb Murray

Caleb MurrayRANDOM PRECISION I woke up in the morning with a hemorrhage in my brain that made me think that life is some kind of nightmare even though, logically, such a state of affairs would be irrelevant to life—after all,…

TWO POEMS by Nathan Lipps

TWO POEMS by Nathan Lipps

Nathan LippsTWO POEMS Controlled Burn To the north they have set fire to a thousand acres of a very real forest to prevent future fires. Walking through the ash it makes sense to him the many ways we handle a…

THE SHAPE OF A FOG by Kevin Eguizabal

Kevin EguizabalTHE SHAPE OF A FOG It was in the water, the shape Of a fog. Surrounding me with ambiguity. Western shadows. I had so many questions. A begging dog. A valley flowered in spring— Hanging in the air. A…

INVENTORY by Nicholas Claro

Nicholas ClaroINVENTORY My therapist asks me to create a list of people I’ve known who have died. To order their deaths from biggest impact to least and provide some details from when they were alive, or after they weren’t. 1.…

2020 APRIL by James LaRowe

2020 APRIL by James LaRowe

James LaRowe2020 APRIL My kids’ new favorite game is searching for signs of life in satellite photos. They crowd around the family computer to hunt for civilization in the most far-flung, godforsaken places on Google Earth. They’ve grown adept at…

IMPACT by Lisa Lanser Rose

Lisa Lanser RoseIMPACT A voice above proclaimed: No automobiles may be left unattended within three hundred feet of the facility. I blinked; an imaginary avalanche of flame slammed through the airport. “Where is everybody?” I asked at the empty ticket…

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