Issue 12 Prose

       an artifact from jerusalem has been brought to mass. i am kneeling in front of it andcrying. i ask god why he made me bad so that he would not love me. my youth leader tells meafter that i should enter the seminary, with...

       Paul stood at the top of the porch stairs, peering at the two-lane highway. He stroked thecreases on his weathered face and yawned. Route forty was fifty steps from his mother’s house.He counted them when he was a boy....

I grew up enjoying my status as an only child in a family with just mom and dad. In the 1950’s, that was unusual even sort of frowned upon. I liked it. Lots of attention and much quieter. My friends all had little urchins...

Sitting in her office chair, hunched over the trash can, she tore into an orange, chilled from thefridge. She didn’t have long nails, but she had just enough to pierce through the skin of the fruit.She had to force her nail,...