GASTROPODA

Now all we eat is words. We used to eat sorrel and pawpaw and hen of the woods. We used to grow our own galangal and hot peppers and...

In my childhood, snow was magic. As the days grew shorter and the temperatures dropped, I became dizzy with the prospect of bright eyes,...

My newborn is blue, not breathing, her umbilical cord wrapped three times around her neck. “Is she okay? Is she okay?” My voice catches...

I used to bake quite often. So often that whenever we go to the grocery store, I make it a habit to add a bag of flour into the shopping...

It’s what new parents call the witching hour, what people without kids call happy hour. I am standing under nearly scalding water,...

As a child, I loved the Gem and Mineral Society. They have a building at Balboa Park in San Diego. It’s got the same adobe design as the...

I kick my legs in the shopping cart until Mom hands me a warm cookie from the bakery. The weekly trip to the grocery store means crinkly...

The open road starts with a gifted car, decorative flowers spray-painted in a fluorescent-bright parking lot. A girl laughs as drips run...

I love the bench’s broken legs, the white bone of metal underneath the red paint. Here is an elegant decline into new spring weeds, into...

October Ocean I don’t get out of bed until I become so sick of researching jellyfish stings that the navy comforter starts to feel like a...

The summer air is hot and damp as the sun disappears behind the faded fence posts in the shadows of the backyard. I revel in the sounds:...

If you ask a person without generalized anxiety disorder how they plan for a music festival, they say things like: “Wear layers in case...

They appeared in kaleidoscope colors, in the form of Siamese fighting fish, gliding about the room, performing graceful pirouettes. She’d...

I haven’t got butterflies in my stomach. They’re more like the mantises you were showing me this morning, the strange and familiar: the...

If I start at the end, it was me in the Cork airport sitting alone at the gate for New Orleans, her barely acknowledging me as she...

A tangle web anchored to a log pile by the fireplace; these webs, you know, arise in dark zones of neglect, and one day you’ll happen to...

I’m building a garage out of little plastic blocks with my son and thinking about the dream I had last night. You were there. Telling me...

Our second rental in New Zealand has cheap construction—again—despite the cost, but was a three-minute walk to the sea and that was...

Our affection for each other, portioned out in teaspoonfuls: Take 2 at bedtime Only as needed Never combine with alcohol. Margaret King...

I thought I was going so far away, but everyone has followed. My knuckle just caught a man on the side of the head as I rushed down the...