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“There was a boy. Another boy.
Before this one. We’ve never told
you. We’ve never told him. He
looked just like him. We named
him. He was everything. We were
different, then.
Rolli, A Day of Rain
—the paper plane flies faithfully
as fast as Akash’s legs can run.
The uneven terrain of the sofa is a
battlefield strewn with the remains
of today’s newspaper, a pair of scissors,
and a few grains of mud from
his barefoot heels.
Devyani Borade, Sky’s the Limit
The silverware was centered on
napkins folded at protractorsharp
angles, while water
glasses orbited the plates at
such symmetrical distances
they might have controlled
tides. Ellen felt no pull towards
humility regarding her work.
These things were difficult to
accomplish this far out in the
cosmos.
And yet, he wasn’t home.
Rob Andwood, Set Phasers for
One
A shiver of cool air bristles my
skin, and it all makes sense:
there is an endless order to
this city, but you can only see
it from way up in the sky. And
when yellow window squares
begin to light Manhattan
anew, I suddenly feel like crying.
I know I will never see this
view again.
Steven Volynets, For Love,
Eternal
And so the goats stayed. And
the baby stayed as well, burrowing
into his life tight as a thorn
tangled in cloth. Even the dragons
remained, and in time, with
her first words, Minchka named
them: Zinfir and Dravij.
Jennifer Racek, The Dragon
Keeper
My mother owns sixty-one eggcups
/ though seldom eats her
own eggs. / They sit in a brown
cabinet / beside the lamp whose
height hides a layer of dust.
I.K. Paterson-Harkness,
Broken Egg
February 2014 5