Damned If I Do

Damned If I Do

Epigenesis “What are you doing?” the trout asks. “I’m turning on the heat.” “Leave it off.” Alan Turing does. “My wife is very smart,” he says. He doesn’t look at the fish while he speaks. “She’s...
Night Boat To Tangier

Night Boat To Tangier

Benjamin? Charlie says. He want a black-sand beach. He want to be talking bollocks. He want a circle of swaying dreadlocks all ’round him. He want the girls and the dogs hanging on his every word. He want to be staring all soulful into the moonlight. Ranting his...
Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine

Season of Disbelief The thing about the children happened in the middle of summer. Mrs. Bentley, coming out to water the ivy upon her front porch, saw two cool-colored sprawling girls and a small boy lying on her lawn, enjoying the immense prickling of the grass. At...
Mornings In Jenin

Mornings In Jenin

Amal wanted a closer look into the soldier’s eyes, but the muzzle of his automatic rifle, pressed against her forehead, would not allow it. Still, she was close enough to see that he wore contacts. She imagined the soldier leaning into a mirror to insert the...
And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos

And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos

When I open my walletto show my paperspay moneyor check the time of a trainI look at your face.The flower’s pollenis older than the mountainsAravis is youngas mountains go.The flower’s ovuleswill be seeding stillwhen Aravis then agedis no more than a hill.The flower...
The Night by Ray Bradbury

The Night by Ray Bradbury

You are a child in a small town. You are, to be exact, eight years old, and it is growing late at night. Late for you, accustomed to bedding in at nine or nine-thirty: once in a while perhaps begging Mom or Dad to let you stay up later to hear Sam and Henry on that...