The Oyisis were having a family meeting, at the prodding of Grandmother, when death walked in. Picture a man, a dreadful black hat, clear fatal eyes, grey knee-length coat missing pockets, lace-up toe-pointed gentleman shoes shimmering with polish, and a screaming silence attached to chain smoker lips. That’s it. Now, had he made an appearance…

It’s fine to be saved but what happens afterwards? The ship lands, thrusters smoldering on the tarmac, and the cameras rush in: Welcome home, Colonel. What are you going to do next? What do you have to say to all those taxpayers who sacrificed universal healthcare to finance your rescue? Are you happy? You say…

In the summertime, I have heard, Utopia Falls lives up to its name. The hillside cabins are full of families. Kids play dodgeball and red light, green light in the field. Every night in Reverend James B. Swanson Hall guests sit down to dinner side-by-side at the long tables in the late light, and help…

In it they found four tiny bottles of shower gel, six tiny lotions, a plastic laundry bag swollen with balled up clothes — I was on my way home, clearly, trip over. They found one neatly folded pair of shorts and two neatly folded tank tops underneath a one-piece cobalt swimsuit that had not been…

When I was in college I saw a movie where the protagonist collected glass figurines of goats. He was a struggling artist with a two bedroom apartment in Manhattan, a genius spurned by his peers, until a woman, another artist, appeared in his life and helped him to greatness. I wanted to be a genius,…

The baby makers were not willing accomplices. The women’s bodies, young and old, had all stopped preparing. They said there was too much pain involved. The pain of sex, the pain of birthing and the pain of taking care of the children were all too much for them. They complained about the black bags developing…

Before her students arrive Kayla spends several minutes at the blackboard dotting her i’s and grinding the chalk for periods to end her sentences. She wants the instructions clear. She unhinges the classroom’s large window and runs a nylon string from wall to wall. She dangles small chunks of rabbit meat across its length. When…

When the president died, they put his chair by the dumpster in the alley. That made no sense to me, on account of it was in the office for so long. I took the chair back up to the office and left it there, but then someone hauled it down to the alley again. When…

Translated by Ramon Glazov “Man of wit. Everything’s legit.” —J. Buridan + [From a home encyclopedia in the year 3000:] Topic: ART or DEPICTION “A phenomenon born with man, but extinguished before him with the murder of Pope Benedict XVI on February 25, 1995” (ref: Goldsmith, Dies Irae, Dies Illa — Global Library). It comprised…

It begins in the middle of her back — an itch in the space between her shoulders, something alive. She shifts against the worn-smooth cotton until she slips onto the cool space where her ex-husband used to sleep. He was neat and orderly, the sort of person who didn’t like to talk in hypotheticals. If…

The sound shakes the dining table. The forks and knives rattle against each other and the milk sloshes in the children’s half-empty tumblers. The plastic pears I stacked just like in the Pinterest pictures, twined with fairy lights in a cut glass tray, tumble and roll. I stand up and pull back the curtain. “Something…

I sit on a plastic seat by the motel pool, my skin turning red. Above, palm trees sway in the hot breeze and offer little shade. I long to be in the water. A lady steps out of the pool, shakes her gypsy-dark hair, and sprinkles coolness on my thirsty skin. “Little girl!” Her bikini…