... it with the paper-bag luminaries that had been set out in memoriam to her sister. By the end of the night, many of the paper bags were missing, smashed, or knocked over. She saw several people reach into the bags for a candle to light their cigarettes and then seem irritated to find not a candle...

... germ. Look what kind of people you find in public pools, she points, and besides you could get polio. We kids can see perfectly through the low chain-link fence, lying on our stomachs, trying to get a suntan, which my brother says you cannot get until at least an hour after eating. Sister says...

...Patrick Lawler 7 Patrick Lawler The Millennium Ball As the millennium approaches, my family goes incrementally crazy. My brother has sex all the time. And my sisters dig furiously for the saint my mother...

...Laurie Woodford lauriewoodford@gmail.com © 2022 Laurie Woodford 2022 Laurie Woodford Waiting Room My friend, Carly, and I are at Brandy s Tavern and on our second round of Grasshoppers (don t judge) when she tells me that she grew up in the shadow of her older sister who was, you...

...Valerie Bandura © 2012 by Virginia Tech 2012 Valerie Bandura Step Right Up This is how I see it: from the same mother came two fists —​I mean sisters, and in one was hidden a prize. Any sane person would guess the sane sister won. I don’t know...

...Susan Rich © 2020 Susan Rich 2020 Susan Rich Outline for Freshman Comp Essay Question at issue: Did you agree to an abortion to appease a sister? Question at issue: What did you fear? Question at issue: Are a bomb and an abortion detonated the same? Possible thesis statement: Maybe...

...Marc J. Straus the minnesota review Marc J. Straus The apocalyptic prayer Sister Mary mouthed in the chemo room was a touch too loud and had the sibilance of a dirge, but nonetheless Thomas Borland chimed in with a slow hymn...

.... It s different with the others, your brother, your sister. They call me on the telephone. They send me cards and flowers on Mother s Day. But they re so old. Unimaginably old. They make me tired. Gerald lives in Ohio now, his own children grown and scat- tered. You never met his wife, of course. She s...

...Lisa Fink © 2011 Lisa Fink 2011 Lisa Fink The Horse Pasture two sisters cut burdock milkweed and long grasses leaning on an electric fence two sisters play house between trees these two trees are mine those three are yours these homes are thick...

..., compact fitting under a shoulder, shining in particle board veneer. My godfather (who liked my sister more and my mom less) surprise visited. He brought one of the few games I already owned—Candyland. Recommended for under age eight. I...

... with his fly unzipped, and we all were detained by the law. When I think of un-filed charges, I want to say gently the names of my sisters, and I want to commit the names of the people who’ve hurt my dear sisters to memory. The snow is still falling on the berries and whip, and if I were...

...-town man whose lover’s been fucked with and what he might do. Think of all the husbands of once-battered wives, think of your tan Acura I man-hunted down and the brothers of bruised sisters, the sisters who haven’t survived still so beautiful, the cinderblock I belly-flopped into your...

..., the beastly hold of sleep. 3. I dream I am gone, living with my mother and sister in San Diego. I don’t remember him until I am walking through the warm, lit night and begin to swell. I lift my shirt—I’m not embarrassed— and squeeze out two fat, white drops...

... trying to fall asleep.” “My nephew and my sister cannot see me right now,” said Uncle Percy, “watching as I am through this ragged hole in this wall, but from here I can see them. I admire how my nephew swims along just ahead of his mother, keeping her constantly following along behind. I...

... was allowed to have a bike, to run around after school, to have friends over. So my mother and her sister escaped their small town—my mother put my sister through business school by teaching in a one- room schoolhouse. After that her sister put my mother through business school...

... was the family’s third child, after her older sister Frieda and her brother Edward. Lillian’s father died when she was only four, and soon afterwards their mother bought a two-family house in Queens, New York, together with her twin sister Jennie Postman and Jennie’s husband Ike Postman. During the years...

...Alex Mouw Copyright © 2021 Alex Mouw 2021 Alex Mouw Perseus Beheading Medusa He is clearly thrilled by the hardness of his bicep as he clutches the severed head of a woman: Medusa, after all, wanted nothing more than to be alone, tended to occasionally by sisters who had no use for great...

... the light in the world extinguished. Everyone thought we were sisters and so we ran with it. That narrative was easier to reconcile than two girls, one of whom was still underage, being on the run from their foster families. Sisters could nuzzle each other in midwestern diners without attracting too much...

... my undivided attention. She wants to show me her panties, she wants to be my kid sister. I want to take her to the zoo and show her the pandas. Want to show her they have circles around their eyes like her mommy. But she wants what she wants...

...: barter a crime lord s tribute song for a pistol or a crucifix, lionize a henchman for a ram s horn stuffed with twenties. & long before all those beginnings, this: you kill your sister s rapist at an all-night party. You cross a border. You re fifteen, invincible & cursed. minnesota review 98 (2022) DOI...