The Hot House Lounge – 1st Place
My chest tightens as fire grazes Sam’s skin, but finally he tosses the match he’s let burn down in his fingers, and the pile of brush jumps into flames. Pockets of damp sap crackle and hiss. We retrieve an armful each of empty aerosol cans from the silo, cans Sam stockpiled over many summers spent [...]
How to Make a Baseball Player Cry
First, tell the gringo baseball player how your husband, Roberto, always knew he was going to die young. If he has no reaction, tell him about what was on the plane: fresh water, plantains, rolls of gauze, baby shoes, powdered milk. Hundreds and hundreds of chancletas. And even if he doesn’t ask, tell him those [...]
Prelude Billy ends his marriage with a note that says it’s me, not you; you’re great, I’m not. He leaves it on the counter under a vanilla-scented candle along with his last paycheck. Then he waits across the street in his Dodge Dart until she comes home. When she spots him, he presses his palm [...]
Poetry
They cut the fog like ghosts amidst ghosts. Their lives are lived too fast to accurately photograph. The list of “also ran” grows. And soon almost new, the almost men, barely teens, are men in the least, men soon at the most like ghosts. This, the earthly mist knows, and even the end [...]
Poetry
Time folds back and back on itself like my uncle’s accordion in our airless attic pleated patterns create shortcuts to the future I tumble through trap doors & silent tunnels at the speed of light, arriving breathless in a world where our [...]
Poetry
I point 6-year-old Joey’s attention to the lime-green baby caterpillar curling itself along the sidewalk in front of our homes, and before I take a second breath, he lifts his miniature Nike and stamps the poor thing to goo, spreads it from the bottom of his shoe to the curb, scraping and scraping it [...]
Poetry
When we didn’t move to Philadelphia, we didn’t buy the hanging flower basket for the front stoop in Old City. We didn’t ride bicycles to the market and fill your basket with Roma tomatoes and eggplant. You don’t like eggplant. And you thought Philadelphia would lose its lure if we had a mailbox, a sconce [...]
Poetry
He didn’t know the thrill of the kill, but he knew he didn’t want to kill the thrill for his father. Everything in him felt scared, told him not to do it— words he could not echo. He sat in the tree stand with his coloring books, glanced up if something [...]
Poetry
My advanced placement was bourbon poured in a cough syrup bottle I kept in my locker – amber in amber. He said it first – spooktacular. How spooky life became as big men were shot down. Conjugate a six ounce verb. Conjugate this: our troubles come in tribes. I expected it but [...]
Column
Are you ready to pursue your MFA
Answer the following questions as honestly as you can. If you say no at any point, stop. You are not suited to pursue your MFA. If you say yes, continue on to the next question. Do you want to be surrounded by other writers of varying temperament, talents, and levels of dedication? Think carefully [...]