Frozen birds fell hard and bounced in our yards, brittle feathers frosted to sparkling. We came out bundled in the cold, gathered the birds in barrels to keep them through the winter. The children, never so gentle, bent over and cupped the birds in their palms. The elders laid the birds on the barrel floors…

There’s only so much you can do to prevent it from happening to you. Sooner or later they will take that which you value the most; they will take your accent and there will be no marker on you anymore, no stamp to say you are from somewhere else. You don’t want to be like…

The broken boy they pulled out from under the Mercury in the rain that day wore a tee shirt that said Solemn Grove Towing and Auto Repair. It said something like Henry or Harlon or Harry or Dale in small print cursive on his chest because that was his name, but no one ever called…

My teeth, they grow sharp, so sharp, like those of a bear or weasel. Every day a little sharper. I run my tongue along the edges and marvel at their shape. I have been out here for many sunrises, creeping through bushes and trees and scrub with Matty Fletcher always at my side, closer than…

On the day my granddad died, I went down to the basement to be with his body. It was quaint down there, dusty cinder blocks and high windows, like a bedroom on a concrete yacht. There were empty wine bottles and books with broken spines and cast-off paintings, all of it chalked in long-ago smoke,…

Etheridge has a hole in his head, or at least that’s what he says. It is a shifty son of a bitch, the hole, slithering from place to place, opening and closing like phases of the moon, and it won’t give him a moment of peace. Any untoward movement could send his brains sloshing out…

Movies have taught the woman that she can do this: Drive to a town outside of her own — fifty, sixty, or even one hundred miles away. Whatever distance puts her at least halfway between her town and another. She can park her car in the back, sign a fake name in the register. Pay…

EXPLANANDUM The details surrounding the blackout remain obscure. What I can say is that thousands of people, by the third or fourth day of the blackout, were to be seen walking the streets everywhere. Businesses were closed. Houses stayed dark through the night. People sought social contact, but no one had any news. Gossip ruled.…

per·cus·sion (pər-‘kə-shən) n. 1. The striking together of two bodies, especially when noise is produced. 2. The sound, vibration, or shock caused by the striking together of two bodies As they enter the hundredth day of peace negotiations without resolution, the Generals are allowed one luxury apiece. The General of the North asks for whisky…

Ebilene checked her e-mail for the third time that morning, but she had still received no response from the Crown Prince of Nigeria. Sure, the birds were singing their songs out to the sky — a pleasure that at her age eclipsed most others. Sure, the sun busily banished gray clouds from the sky. Sure,…

The sun went down and all the switchblades came out. A knife fight on every street corner. A hold up at every store unwise enough to stay open after dusk. Jones had knifed since he was a child. Still, he and Kegger weren’t as brutal as many knifers. They didn’t enjoy mutilation as much. They…

Mada hated bright lights, gaffers, video cameras on wheels, teleprompters, live studio audiences, and she only realized it right now, because she’d never been subjected to them before right now. Her heartbeat pummeled. Fifteen feet away the talk show host had her nose powdered and a lavalier mic clipped to the inside of her suit…