by Amanda Izzo

“As soon as we turned the corner, I apologized to the Edie Falco look-alike on my new roommate's behalf, and in the same breath immediately inquired about that free government dope.”

by Molly J. Bredehoft

“My mom made it a special time for all of us, and this is what I think of as I watch the flakes out of the window and sit in the glow of lights.”

by Kirby Michael Wright

“We were lucky the cowboys hadn’t pulled six-shooters and plugged us. We were double lucky their camper hadn’t caught up.”

by Amy Boyes

“Some people might think we’re crazy, but this is New York!” one of them said proudly. “It’s not just the great and the good who enjoy the arts. We all do. And spotting celebrities is just a perk.”

by Oleg Olizev

"But that whisper — that was the real voice of power. Very, very scary. Almost crippling. Not because of what it said, but because it could be said quietly, with impunity, face to face, breath to ear.”

by Jennifer Marketer

“If you had a pet mongoose, for example, that might not seem strange until you’d visited enough weasel-free homes to suspect you were the outlier.”

by Prasida Clare Newman

“Comme des Garçons Eau De Parfum smells like lilac blossoms stuck to duct tape. Oddly specific, duct tape and lilacs remind her of the good things.”

by Amelia Nason

“Accidentally flooded my house with mustard gas oops. He considers himself an amateur alchemist. Half awake, I scream into a pillow when I read the text. I’m getting used to his affinity for death, but it still makes me sick with worry.”

by Kathi Crawford

“I don’t need to grieve the mother I wish you could be. I am with you in the hospital when you die, and you want me to be there because you love me.”

by Kelly R. Samuels

“I could try and find those houses, now, but I think I would fail. It’s not their exteriors that I remember. Just their rooms, before, and then after—the stillness and shine.”

by Frances Thomas

“I’d never wish the pain of a shoulder dislocation on my worst enemy, but I do recommend that all of us—grown-ups especially—get down on the floor and play. “

by Eamonn Furey

“On Mother’s Day, our ten-year-old daughter helped us to tend to her sister’s grave. She often laments that she has no ‘big’ sister to play with. Despite having older brothers, she feels like she is alone.”

by Mary Ann MacGuigan

“…me and Irene each get a doll under the tree, identical except for their dresses. But Irene’s are always dark-haired, like she is. Mine are either blondes or redheads. Sometimes we have parties with them and pretend they drink too much.”

by Christie Ellen

“…not this again.”

by Amy Boyes

“…but the ambulance that rolled towards the sad scene was in no hurry. No siren wailed. No traffic screeched to a stop.”

by Thomas Belton

“…the bees eventually flew back to their lair and crept back through their windowed opening into the earth, crawled down into their heated cellar to work more diligently till winter’s end, chastened by the promise of a false spring.”

by Lance Mason

“Nairobi was an illustration of why it is incumbent upon Americans to choose our leaders wisely—because history is not done with us.”

by Michael Collard

“I don’t have a framework for masculinity outside of pain. Outside of control, of domination, of what was done to me and what I swore I’d never do to anyone else. I wasn’t given an alternate model. No map. No shape to grow into. Just a list of what not to become.”

by Zary Fekete

“The waiting room was still there, ghostly green. The benches were splintered, the floor sticky with moss and mud. A single IV pole lay half-buried in the dirt like a flag surrendered.”