Sarah Beth Brooks: “An Alternate Universe Where the Bullet Missed”

An Alternate Universe Where the Bullet MissedYou come out west to visit, and fall in lovewith how the waves hug the shore, and being a hugger yourself,decide you belong by the sea.At a Midsummer bo…

THE BIG WINDOWS REVIEW
Alex Stolis: “Postcards for the Knife-Thrower (May 21-22 Portland, OR)”

Postcards from the Knife-Thrower May 21-22 Portland, OR Today I tore a shirt in the Lion Tamer’s tent, said he’d ask his wife to mend it, as if I live on an island and no woman will ever touch me a…

THE BIG WINDOWS REVIEW
JC Alfier: “Page from a Seneca Falls Notebook”

Page from a Seneca Falls Notebook Late dusk, and a woman looks up from a prayer book to follow nightbirds she can’t identify. Through a window growing cold to her touch, she watches freezing rain s…

THE BIG WINDOWS REVIEW
Svetlana Litvinchuk: “The Warmth of Words”

The Warmth of Words (or, The Day I Helped My Husband Blow Cellulose Insulation Into the Attic) I put words into a machine to keep our house warm.They were covered in salt to keep from being flammab…

THE BIG WINDOWS REVIEW
Deborah H. Doolittle: “Louise Bogan’s Journey Around the Calendula in Her Garden”

Louise Bogan’s Journey Around the Calendula in Her Garden To me, one silky flower is like another. Most offer shameless buds of lust or pride. These few flourish as well as any other. Tame, like wo…

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Patricia Nelson: “The Briefest of Reprieves”

The Briefest of Reprieves  We are free now. Taller, wiser than the myths of childhood. Gone, the sins we held like stones.  We touch our chests with the shape of the crossroads. We begin to forget …

THE BIG WINDOWS REVIEW
Paul Hostovsky: “Bess”

Bess  She was wearing a white button-down shirt with snap buttons, waiting for me to unsnap them. But I was shy and she was in the driver’s seat. So she started unsnapping them herself. She was 18 …

THE BIG WINDOWS REVIEW