Issue 157
$10.00
10 in stock
THE LURE OF POSSIBILITIES:
in which we retreat to a hermitage in Scotland, escape to Florida one last time, see miracles in our own home, and date the man of our (bad) dreams
FICTION Lisa Alward, Nicole Baute, Tim Bowling, Ami Sands Brodoff, Miriam Clavir, Cynthia Flood, Melody Goetz, Mary-Lynn Murphy, Heather Paul, Natalia Zdaniuk, Alice Zorn ESSAYS Kirsteen MacLeod, Margaret Nowaczyk, Lori Sebastianutti, Kevin Shaw, Kathleen Winter POETRY Edward Dewar, Carla Hartsfield, Kevin Irie, Cynthia Woodman Kerkham, Ian LeTourneau, Chase Everett McMurren, Colin Morton, Bernadette Rule, Angeline Schellenberg, Tom Wayman
This government land is a sanctuary where hummingbird-hearts beat faster than anything and deer pause to watch you watching them watch you. Owen loved it here, playing outdoorsman, chopping wood and starting fires and fishing in the bay early in the morning when the world was raw and wild and optimistic. I suppose the world remains raw, wild, and optimistic on the bay at six a.m., but Owen isn’t here to tell me about it, and I don’t fish. Like the deer, I mostly watch and try to understand.
NICOLE BAUTE, “I FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU’RE HERE”
Lindsey had begged her parents to babysit Sam for Friday and Saturday. Pumped and pumped her teats of milk until they hurt and hung like deflated balloons against her chest. Had packed suitcases for both of them, farmed the dog out to a friend, written pages of instructions for her parents to follow. Handed them a cooler of bottled breast milk, and finally, drank a third coffee and drove the two hours from north of the city to meet Scott for noon. She felt like she’d already lived a full day before arriving. What a girl had to do these days to get laid.
HEATHER PAUL, “PLENTY OF FISH”
My mind compulsively spins on, uneasy about being cut off from data. When I finally realize that despite no cell signal there’s a landline and more important, that retro accompaniment, a phone book full of numbers I could call, I’m strangely elated. With no wireless or cellphone, and no electricity either, this hermitage is going to be the ideal setting to explore whether being a self-imposed hermit is possible in the modern world.
KIRSTEEN MACLEOD, “THE HERMIT DIARIES”
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