Kafka’s Typewriter

Adam Cheshire

Let me mimic the great Czech writer; it’s what I’ve been doing most of my adult life, anyway. I imagine he’d refer to the three main characters of this story as simply the Proprietor, the Barman, and the Novelist.

The Mother, The Father

Francine Witte

In the history of you, your mother
was belly blossom and then the
primordial soup you crawled out of.
Your limbs stretched tadpole-like
as you finally touched solid ground.

Like A River

Peggy Hammond

That angry word hits hard,
cracks the sidewalk
between us; your eyes
flash a warning, say
there’s more
where that came
from.

Ghosts

Clint Bowman

In the middle of the sermon,
you passed a note that read,
“People who believe in ghosts
are more likely to see them.”