New World Writing Quarterly

What baby wants

We got him a rock­ing horse but our baby com­plained it was made of wood and it wasn’t very nice for the tree, and we tried to explain how one thing always dis­places anoth­er, but our baby was hav­ing none of it. He lay in my wife’s arms, a tiny frown –more

Her hus­band nev­er dis­suad­ed her, though he didn’t love every look. Annually, there’d be a new ’do—different lengths, tex­tures, col­ors, and shapes. Twenty years in, she got dras­tic and asked, Should I cut it all off? Yes, he said with­out hes­i­ta­tion, –more

Out of Touch

He touched the win­dow, and the win­dow dis­solved. A hum­ming­bird hov­ered, star­ing into his eyes, then flew away. A bee bounced off his cheek, and a fly cir­cled his head. He caught it, but when he opened his hand, the fly was gone. He picked up a glass –more

“You got­ta love the Sharon Lipschutzes of the world,” says James.  “You real­ly do.”

Rachel turns the page of her book and looks over at her hus­band.  “Sharon Lipschutz?”  She squints at the cov­er of his book even though she already knows –more

Twenty-two grams in. Thirty-four grams out.

Shot for shot for shot.

I tweak the dial, get­ting close to the per­fect grind.

“This ain’t no mocha hut. Man, this is a legit cof­fee shop,” yells the barista from the morn­ing shift. He’s con­vinc­ing him­self –more

Long before Callum ever took his first step into the murky waters of Loch Ness, he knew what lurked below. Callum’s moth­er had always been fas­ci­nat­ed with the idea of undis­cov­ered crea­tures liv­ing among us. And because of her proud Scottish her­itage, –more

Green & Blue

Two insects thin-limbed as grasshop­pers with but­ter­fly wings, one spring­time green, one fairy­tale blue, flut­ter, flick­er, land on your fin­gers in the sun-spilled kitchen. You stand beside the win­dow with the insects on your fin­gers. –more

On a Wednesday morn­ing in the loop that is this world with­out end, Engelbert Humperdinck cuts him­self shav­ing. Above the Adam’s Apple.

I bleed, he says to the mir­ror as the trick­le makes its way to the notch of his neck. Who knew?

The TV voice from –more

When my own grand­moth­er died I went on vaca­tion in Florida. But when your grand­moth­er died I went to her funer­al. I didn’t real­ly know my own grand­moth­er, nor did I know yours that well. But I –more

When I was a lit­tle girl my father took me back
to his home­land, a lit­tle vil­lage in Italy high on
a moun­tain­top called Durazzano. Guarda tutte
le arance! my father said, as we snaked up the
moun­tain in what –more

Into the Whole

During moon­light pond toughens
against freez­ing temperatures
until morn­ing sun caress­es softness
from sur­face, and ducks paddle
paths across slush
like jet streaks span­ning blue sky
until each dis­si­pates into whole.

~

Passenger

Grasshopper clings
to my car’s –more

Kristy’s moth­er bought the super­mar­ket check­out mag­a­zines, the ones you’d pick up, maybe, if the line was mov­ing slow­ly enough. Top 10 Tips to Get Summer Skinny!, they would say, or some ancient scan­dal with Elvis or Marilyn Monroe and NOW IT CAN –more

Did you watch that wal­rus scene, on screen?
Plummeting to their deaths
one
by
one.
A tragedy of bod­ies piled
at the base of an 80-foot cliff.
Tusks punc­ture blubber
ivory impales backs. Bellies. Eyes.
–more

Translated by Toshiya Kamei

“Oh, how cursed am I in love?” My neck stretch­es like a rub­ber band. My head snakes through moon­lit autumn air toward your win­dow. Beyond the screen door, you lie asleep beside your wife. Her serene coun­te­nance makes –more

In Altbau build­ings, the wood­en floors creak. They’ve been creak­ing for hun­dreds of years. Boots made them creak; heels, pat­ters of paws, hus­bands and wives tip­toe­ing to meet their younger loves, kids play­ing hide and seek, kids fight­ing –more

December 14, 1977 Civic Center, Cedar Rapids Iowa: I Wanna Learn a Love Song

L was into Harry. I wore a cham­bray den­im shirt with black vel­veteen col­lar, cuffs and stays. We held hands in the cheap seats—You can always count on the cheap seats! We –more

In 1977, I owned half a share of a but­ton col­lec­tion. My part­ner, who was also my best friend, lived in the house cat­ty­corner behind us. We’d slipped quick­ly into both rela­tion­ships, per­son­al and busi­ness, when my fam­i­ly moved to the neigh­bor­hood –more

“Look who’s here,” a stranger says to us and pulls out a chair and sits at our table. Looks to be in his late six­ties, ball­cap with a worn bill, wire-rimmed glass­es, three-day’s sil­very growth, close-cut hair on the sides. He waves at a serv­er –more

Why don’t you try to be me and see how
it goes? I’ll take the dull brown hair and the
split floor plan if you’ll go danc­ing. Are there
oth­er kinds of Ecstasy? I’ll stand in

your back yard at dawn, the sky red above
the dis­tant stacks of –more

cowgirl in the underworld

I dri­ve due east with wolf-song and the night­jar. Drive
under the big steel wings of wind farms, past
roads named after ranch­es, after Methodists. Past
fur­rowed fields that mark the miles in siloes. Fields
that used to glint –more