Caregiver as onion

Nancy Huggett

Less perishable than other foods, can be carried on long trips, easy to grow in a variety of
soils, containers, and climates. Useful for sustaining human life.

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PoetryJason Norman
Susan goes couchsurfing

Lizzie Derksen

I crash on my rich friend’s couch in Ritchie,
where the beans are stumbling like
Rachel and I having a fight—I mean
like newborn foals out of the ground.
Thirty-odd years ago
our pre-frontal cortexes lurched into place,
and it turns out there is still everything
to try and understand.

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PoetryJason Norman
Love/Life

Amber Burke

We rise from the earth toward each other, aching with desire. What is allowed? The tentativeness of first touches. Tell me what you want. I take your hand and place it. My young body. Your young body. The dew on us gleaming. Inviting, teasing.

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Short StoryJason Norman
Pareidolia, In Toast

Jacqueline Parker

Months after my mother’s death, years after cancer began the long, slow mastication of her body, she’s resurrected in my toast. Golden brown and singed, she appears without warning as I’m about bite the border of her crusty skull. 

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Short StoryJason Norman
Rains In Dubai

Mandira Pattnaik

In the time it’d take to call you, the rains start pouring in Dubai. The TV screen turns black then blue then resumes telecast. Somebody says, “Historic event! Not comparable to anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949 – and that was before the UAE was established in 1971.” They cut to scenes of several layers of dark clouds, like the way it was dark under the blanket you and I pulled over our heads to escape Mamma’s beating.

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Short StoryJason Norman