by Anne Dougherty

“As I pass by, I don’t even have to think: the car is totaled…I can tell at least three airbags went off. A cushion between injury and my husband.

by Michela Polito

“It was a particularly hot and wet day at the shipyard, the day I met Lahdi. The air felt thick and heavy, both inside and outside the ships.”

by Chachee Valentine

“I was born with an obsession with death. My young mother, exhausted by my curiosities, would snarl under Maxwell House coffee breath, Death is for the living.”

by Indigo Brewer

“I lost my mother to breast cancer in 2016. Followed the year after by my grandmother to old age and the family dog by way of ran-the-fuck-over. My 21 year old brain couldn’t duck the heavy-handed fast blowing woes yet so I crawled in and out of bars until they closed and the bouncers shoulder-grab-shoved me out in the politest way possible.”

by Jennifer Harris

“I don’t know what woke me up. A bad dream, maybe. I used to be haunted by bad dreams, especially in Maine.”

by Zary Fekete

“If Ananya does her work well, then she will earn the rupee equivalent of $6 per day.”

by Leigh Cuen

“Change is always happening. Stillness is only a seductive illusion. We are all piecing ourselves together, decade after decade. Aging is not the end of beauty, but rather allows its deepest expression.”

by Liza Shaub

“I have a memory of a woman who refused to show weakness in front of anyone. I understand now that she was telling us something in silence…The disease could have her body, but it could never have her place in our family. Not while she still had breath to fill the room.”

by Leslie Lisbona

“Looking back, I wanted so much a home of my own. But where was home, I wonder.  Was it our old house in Queens? Was it when we passed LaGuardia? Or was it simply being with my mom on all those long drives in our car that felt as big as a living room?”

by Vincent Cellucci

“I’m probably fired. But might as well try. Hanging my head in mock shame, I throw the silver handle and glide in the back door two hours late. Times like these it’s best to avoid eye contact.”

by Sia Mehta

“I’m certain this moment of essential change is different for everyone. But the turning point for me was eyebrows.”

by Kristen Field

“Catherine O’Hara died four days before I went in for a partial colectomy to remove a malignant tumor that had cropped up in less than two years and already spread to my lymph nodes.”

by Gail Andromeda Vanhart

“In the typical five man band structure, The Heart is the glue that holds everyone together. Everyone’s best friend, the healer, the emotional support. These are all inaccurate terms to describe my brother…”

by Melody Wordworker

“After more than a month of tasting sawdust, seeing grey, and sleeping 12+ hours a day, I decided, once again, to call the psychiatric crisis line.”

by Bright Aboagye

“As I write now, I recognize how often my life has been induced by recriminations that never occurred out loud. I anticipated them so thoroughly that they became unnecessary. I corrected myself in advance. I punished myself privately. I offered compliance as proof of gratitude.”

by Peter Bertlessen

“In perilous times such as these, I'm reminded of one of my Grandpa Jim's favorite sayings: nothing in life is guaranteed except death, taxes, and fascist regimes burning their country to the ground.”

by David Capps

“When a companion star dies it gives its partner all of its remaining matter, its body, not a mouthful of ashes, its sustenance, for the twins that shared an orbit will be come one, burning bright blue, for the rest of life.”

by Summer Griffin

“The flowers died on Monday. I chose yellow daisies because they remind me of little suns, and I’ve never trusted the real one to stay.”

by Phaedra Saffron

“This drink is honey, spice, and spirit…I shall drink it in your honor, your ever-loving memory. Serenaded by her speeding cars, her homeless men playing all manner of instruments for spare change.”

by Amanda Parrack

“‘I’m frustrated because there are no words to describe what I feel for you, how much I love you...’ and then [she] hands me the rose I would dry on my apartment wall.”