Attachment

By Joshua Michael Johnson
“How’d my hair even get in here?” she asks, scrubbing inside the fridge. “The same way it gets everywhere,” replies the man who’s found her hair where it could not be ...

Photo Story: The Riddle...

By Daniel Moore
Ai the Beautiful was the first woman permitted to join the sangha Buddhist order, and before long half its members abandoned their vows of celibacy driven by lust.

Monster Neck

By John Meyers
When I was young I never thought about my neck. It was smooth and supple like the rest of me. Now my neck is a monster.

Photo Story: Scrubbing ...

By Joe Bernardi
For the first time that night, she paused. The sink flooded her memory.

Vows

By Kara Vernor
She says she’ll never marry. She’s 18 and wants the open road, wants sex in every United State. She’s sampled only the West Coast, though heavily.

Plans

By Andrew O. Dugas
The nurse checking your vitals has plans. She's distracted. You've been in the hospital long enough to know the shift is almost over.

Photo Story: What Came ...

By Ken Gosse
Before they searched him for ID to notify someone; before police called for a body pickup; before a caller said he looked dead ...

Gifts

By Kevin Simmons
When she opened and heaved and birthed our daughter onto our mattress, I knew we’d never be rid of that bed—the one my dad offered to us, newlywed and broke...

Photo Story: Woman Keep...

By Sarah Freligh
Friday is Mrs. Judson’s, her marble-topped table that refuses to give up its smudges no matter how hard I polish.

Photo Story: Taillights

By Jimmy Leonard
We’re forty minutes outside of Sacramento when traffic crawls to a stop. Luggage racks, loose clothes, dogs yipping out windows.

Stained Lips

By Jan Elman Stout
She dabs her lips with Faithful Fawn. He hovers behind, runs his fingers through his graying hair, eyes fixed on his reflection. How do I look? Her mouth forms a perfect “O,” presses shut.

Full Cold Moon

By Gay Degani
They bear witness, the girl and the supermoon, pinned to different worlds. She studies the ocean, chin on knees, toes buried in cooling sand...