The three of us took a walk just before dark. We wanted to see how the partygoers from the previous night had fared. In the two blocks we walked from our house to theirs, the level of destruction to Hattiesburg sank in. Nine months earlier, I’d been patrolling the embattled streets of Fallujah. The two … Read more
She reaches over to the desk and grabs a box of tissues, holding it out towards me. I take it from her, not because I’m crying or anything, but because I want to spare her the awkwardness of holding it out in the air for no reason. “So that seems pointless,” I say. She chuckles … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry The Word In the beginning it was lightand the moment was oneand all was one and all was lightEverything that was or would beall contained in the lightall condensed in the momentwhich was Always Perhaps there was a you and a me in the lightbut there was … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry Grapes and Questions What is a dream without desire? It wouldn’t be a dream at all. Desire stirs within us the questions that we have always asked ourselves Questions that beget more questions until the dream is a question itself that keeps the wheel turning, making us … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry No Signature The quiet man lived above the drone path,five flights up, where no one looked.Each morning, with tea and unlined pagesHe waited longer than most peoplewaited for thought now.He never asked the page to be brilliantThe quiet man asked it to be his, not automaticThat was … Read more
The day Ana went to space, you watched the rocket take off on an oversaturated television screen, the blues of the sky heavy and inky, and you thought about the time the two of you had seen the aurora borealis. Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Short Fiction Solar Wind The day Ana went … Read more
Over the following weeks, their bond deepened in ways that defied the physics of retail spaces. Late one Tuesday evening, after the crowds had thinned, Eli brought her to the third-floor railing and stopped. Below them, the mall transformed. Security cameras swiveled in synchronized ballet. Escalators throughout WHSPR hummed in harmony, creating a low frequency … Read more
At first, the aloneness is oppressive. The distance between here and Santiago, though a mere fraction of the total distance I have walked, stretches in front of me like an overworked muscle. It is the last third of this Camino. My friends and I had made it through the Basque Country and its abusively beautiful … Read more
“You manipulate staff to discharge him every twenty days, just before his Medicare coverage runs out. Then you re-register him to start a new cycle. But that’s only slightly fraudulent. You invent illnesses, so Medicare will extend his stay.” “Those are real illnesses.” “That he doesn’t have.” Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Books … Read more
Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry But, His Clothing is Still There When time has ripenedand the day’s dying lightis in your favor,find the key to his armoire.Stand just so for the gloaming glowof the waning dayin mother’s full-length mirror.Try on his abandoned tweed,segregation’s scent stillin the weave.Pull his braces up with your … Read more