Fiction

The Middlegame

Tuesday I’m trying to figure out if you can have two thoughts at once. I mean really think about two things simultaneously, not like be hungry and do math at the same time, which is what I was doing when I originally started wondering in the first place. Focus is my Achilles’ heel. Eric figured…

A solo cover of a pencil drawing of a boy on a plain yellow background

Córdoba Skies (Solo 4.7)

Chapter 1 “Tino, come here,” his mom called him back to her bedside. Tino was on his way out, but stopped. The nurse had been searching for something among medicine bottles on the bedside table and also looked up. “Take care of your dad,” Tino’s mom said. “I will,” he told her and kissed her…

A solo cover of a silhouette of a person's profile filled with pink flowers

Confession (Solo 4.4)

That morning a lamb was born. They’re born a lot and I’m used to it, but still, to hear that tiny bleating from the comfort of my bed. The mother was Cindy, a Katahdin hair sheep of some distinction, one of the older gals, not a nurture natural. I had to get up at three…

A solo cover with a bright geometric pattern of Xs and Os

Adopting Sarajevo (Solo 4.3)

“Let’s ask Dad to drive me. It’s not like he works full-time anymore. And he’s practically begging for our approval.” The fact that Frank had never taken Marina to the orthodontist made him no worse than any other man whose wife ran a corporation while never missing a kid’s appointment, and though the braces were…

Cover for Ploughshares Solo Biting the Moon

Biting the Moon (Solo 4.1)

They’re not true, you know. The platitudes. God, the itching. Tops of my hands. Base of my skull. Platitudes, Pleiades. He’s in a better place. Who says? Who knows? He lives on in people’s hearts. People forget. They get distracted. Then they die too. Scratch, scratch. Eyebrows. Clavicle. Need a ruler to get at my…

The Miracle Years of Little Fork

In the fourth week of drought, at the third and final performance of the Roundabout Traveling Circus, the elephant keeled over dead. Instead of stepping on the tasseled stool, she gave a thick, descending trumpet, lowered one knee, and fell sideways. The girl in the white spangled leotard screamed and backed away. The trainer dropped…