Issue #6 ~ Winter 2022 Nonfiction
Identify Your Triggers: Whole Foods Parking Lot | Cassie Burkhardt
I’m with my two-year-old at the grocery store today, truly the most demoralizing place for stay-at-home mothers when you haven’t showered, your stomach is grinding coffee beans in your sleep, and you feel the exact same color as the uncured ham slices lying flat and helpless. My cart is piled high with chicken breasts, cartons of broth, tomato sauce, jumbo cartons of berries, organic bananas—of which the two-year-old’s eaten two— the ripped-open peels an upside-down, stringy version of what used to be whole.
Swimming: A Meditation | Lynne Golodner
When I was little, I rode on my father’s back while he swam the length of our neighbor’s pool in one breath. My legs gripping his sides, my arms waving in the wind, I tilted my head back and laughed as he pulled me through the water. The pool seemed impossibly long, and I could not imagine holding my breath the whole distance the way my father did. He carried me from the depths to the shallows, where I climbed off and he rose out of the water like a great whale’s tail, shaking drops from his face, his grin as wide as mine. I believed he could do anything.
Other good stuff…
