Issue 150

ADJUSTMENTS NEED TO BE MADE:
in which we discover the art of grief on a train to Paris, fall in love with a manatee, learn to find solace in a retreat, and canoe the Allagash River in search of Thoreau.

FICTION Virginia Boudreau, Mark Burgess, Sadiqa de Meijer, Nadja Lubiw-Hazard, Alex MacKay, Robby MacPhail, Stephen Maude, Margaret Nowaczyk, Marilo Nuñez, Julie Paul, Natalie Southworth POETRY Margret Bollerup, Dell Catherall, Jennifer Lynn Dunlop, Moneesha R. Kalamder, Callista Markotich, Moira MacDougall, Maureen Scott Harris, David Waltner-Toews ESSAYS Clarence Cachagee, Francine Cunningham, Richard A. Johnson, Tanis MacDonald, Kirsteen MacLeod, K. D. Miller

“I’m downing my fourth cup of coffee while my own brunch—two joyless eggs shipwrecked in a sea of tomato sauce—grows progressively, inevitably colder. Back in high school Daniel Slomski and I used to study physics together, so I know that, in theory, thermodynamics can run both ways, cold eggs could grow warmer, molecules falling into disarray could reorder themselves into something stable, something beautiful even, but in my experience that never happens, those reactions only run one way, sort of like me and Daniel come to think of it.”

– Stephen Maude, “Happy Enough”

“Most everyone else visited once, and never returned. They were, as I was at first, annoyed by bugs, the outhouse, the small indoor space, lack of running water, electricity and cell signal. How could they not be won over by the solitude, open space, natural beauty, trees, wildflowers, and the ever-flowing creek? Clinging to comfort separates us from reality, like the seasons changing and the rhythms of the natural world, leaving us in a fake, fantasy world of our own creation, I’d opine to their eyeball rolls.”

– Kirsteen MacLeod, “Green Cathedral”

“While looking out the window and sipping my coffee, I give thanks for having been brought safely to this day. Whether the view is sunny or filled with driving snow, being alive to look at it beats, as they say, the alternative. I then mentally list other things I’m grateful for—friends, health, inspiration, writer’s block, fun, not fun, problems, solutions…I do this before I pull my latest manuscript toward me or boot up my computer. Whatever dream might still be haunting the back of my mind, whatever challenges the coming day presents, my first engagement is with an entity I cannot see, hear or touch, and whose existence I cannot prove.”

– K.D. Miller, “One Good Place”

$5 plus HST