penguins

For the penguins it is cold and sometimes it is cold like that in my bedroom, where I sleep, and the covers that cover me up aren't enough to keep me warm. This is summer, but there

Slut Whore has every Barbie on the market, lined up sitting on her windowsill along her bedroom wall, and all the best clothes and accessories. She invites her friends over and they dress and

Near a mound of fresh dirt under a sprawling oak tree. Cannons rumble in the distance. Lounging next to the mound is a young man, about 19. He is dirty. Underneath the dirt and blood streaking his

My friend Brandon has packed his friend's Jeep with provisions of snowballs, dried turkey, Finlandia. Observing the heaped vehicle, and considering the 2,700 miles to California, I am reminded of

Before the blue was sailed by Columbus and his greedy, maritime ilk, before the men who followed him brought plagues, monotheism and gunpowder, there dwelt in the Piedmont a small band of itinerant

Early Morning

Debra Jims dreams of Kool-Aid. The juice leaves a red mustache above her lip. Men around her have mustaches too, real ones, thick and masculine. Her husband Todd rolls over and

"...as soon as a member of the family has breathed his or her last a younger member of the household... is told to visit the hives, and rattling a chain of small keys tap on the hive and whisper

The Piano Thief

It'll take him all of a month, longer if he's in love. But always at least those thirty days. Because a piano is heavy. What he's learned to do over the years, though, is take

Georgia Ambler used to jog on Thursdays while Jake and I shot baskets in the drive. "You're outta shape, old man," Jake laughed, doubled over himself. Locking his hands to his knees, Jake spit

When Larry hit the cow on the two-lane highway in Virginia, the face of the cow, its open mouth hurtling past the driver's-side window, scared him most. He was on his way to Charlottesville to

When they told us that the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, had been destroyed by a crude but powerful bomb — TERRORIST, they said, TERROR, with the same rote certitude of those who chant

Do you really spend 80% of your free time knitting?

Yes. I've knit during a blackout and a brownout, on the back seat of a double bike, on the beach during the eye of a hurricane, and during a

The man and the woman he plans to marry are almost playing croquet in Jamaica. They don't know the rules. There are heavy mallets and dusty colored balls, worn rough by the rolling years. There are

Track #8: "Before They Make Me Run"

We walked home along the railroad tracks. One day I tried to time my stride so each foot would come down on a weathered tie and not the cinder stone. I was

I don't dream at all unless napping. I've probably had three naps in my lifetime. When I sit at my desk my legs snap in the breeze. They tingle and flicker. They want to do something. A metabolism

He was temping at a website, one of those online radio stations that you could customize based on music you already liked. It was backed up by evidence, a tab you could click to find out which of

When the weatherman warns the roads will become impassable, your mother sends your father out for supplies. Your mother tucks the money in your mitten. She sends you along to keep him

Frank wanted a "heart of the hide" glove ever since he was in the PeeWees, but the dad of all knowledge said nothing doing, a glove like that had to be earned, game by game, and by earned he didn't

"Becca, you're in charge," Mom said, craning her neck around the driver's side burgundy vinyl headrest. "I'm picking you kids up in three hours at this exact spot, in front of Gate D. Do not, I

The phone rings. You can a) get out of the hot tub, b) tell Graciela to get it, or 3) send Roberto. Answering the phone, however, would ultimately interrupt Graciela, who is in the hot tub with

There he was in the dugout crying.

All the guys were on the field. They were slugging it out because what were they supposed to do? Clint got beamed in the small and Gary charged from the

As soon as Joey Steinbach's foot sprung from second base and he made the turn, there was no unplugging it. He'd decided back on first base that if the ball even skimmed the outfield grass he was

It is not for nothing that baseball has existed since 1846 and now encompasses 30 teams playing 162 games each a year. In that span of time, speculative taxonomists and fly-by-night actuaries have

I stop at a 7-Eleven for a pack of gum. I give the cashier a twenty.

"You don't have any ones?" the cashier asks.

I don't, but I say I do anyway.

The cashier just stares at me.

"Um,

So, my step-sister Alice. She divorces her husband of ten years. Bart. High school sweethearts. Sad, sad, sad. Claims he beat her. Wins 75% in court. Unheard of, her lawyer says. But abuse factored