Bluebird
My daughter in prison plays the piano.She plays from memory, eyes closed,her heart a violin stringing alongas piano notes fall like raindropssoft while cedar trees... Read more.
Sister
My sister doesn’t do sad.She tried it on a few times, different styles, different sizes— nothing quite fit. Either too loudor too dark, too tight or... Read more.
The Dying Farmer
Act I Put me where I am usefuljust beneath the topsoilhalf-inch down of warmthand wet loam in my handspitch me a shovel or rakelet me get up when the sunsplits land... Read more.
My Mother's Kitchen
Beneath the butcher-wrap paperlay Formica of gray with black flecks,and after my mother and her side-kick Anita finished wrapping T-bones, roundsteaks, sirloins,... Read more.
Stones
I was sweating and drooling. It was April. I had almost made it through fifth grade. And now I was leaving the planet. Permanently. Until I heard, “Abigail, honey.... Read more.
Wisconsin People & Ideas 2015 Fiction & Poetry Contest Reading
Every year Wisconsin People & Ideas, the Wisconsin Academy’s quarterly magazine of Wisconsin thought and culture, hosts fiction and poetry contests that... Read more.
Heaven
At sixteen, the good kissrelied on pitch-black darknessduring the seventeen-mile ride to our dairy farmafter we won the basketball gameand my point-guard boy... Read more.
Miles
Foggy water. Watery fog. It enveloped the Alaskan ferry until the boat’s Chief Engineer, Miles Gopon, saw more than fog. He saw sheets of lace. Pink lace. Panties.... Read more.
Fiction/Poetry Contest Reading at the 2011 Wisconsin Book Festival
Wisconsin People & Ideas editor Jason A. Smith and literary editor John Lehman host an evening of the best poetry and fiction by up-and-coming Wisconsin writers... Read more.