So when June’s mama drove off the twisty mountain road that rainy spring midnight after drinking herself into a starry stupor at the Thirsty Stallion, June took it as an omen of magical things to come.
Cooper Will Be Dead Soon/ Zachary Davis
“You’re saying you’re not available at all on Tuesday, then? You’re certain there’s no wiggle room there?”
“No, I’ll be unavailable that whole day, and every day after that.”
Spoils of War/ Beth Gordon
Graffiti/ on playgrounds, well-fed alpacas in the palace garden,/ mutated children, sleeping in discarded gift/ boxes outside the nightclub./ We begin to seep/ through cracks…
Squeeze/ Joshua Stewart
Grandpa dug the game warden’s false teeth right out of his face/ buried them in his dresser near the painting of Jesus on the wall./ As latchkey kids, the first thing we learned how to do was unlock/ every gun case in our mother’s closet…
Plants/ Chance Dibben
The F U scrawled on my car’s hood/ has gotten deeper/ my teeth can hold anything/ but a smile…
The Workhorse/ Lucy Crowe
Oh, those hands – they sifted fall soybeans and pinched them to gauge the moisture content. They tugged wet cornstalks from the corn head, they wielded hoes, shovels, hammers. They patted the dog and held the child, circled the waist of the woman he loved.
Wardrobe/ Meg Weber
That thread from before snags at me, unravels all the way through my chest as the weight sinks in. I can feel the bottom edge of her words, can sense what she might mean. She’s desperately unhappy and can’t find her way out of it.
These Hollers Have Teeth/ Gordon Taulbee
These hollers have teeth/ five times too many/ blind eyes from bad shine/ the mine has collapsed/ shells still in Matewan/ Blair Mountain has ghosts…
Finding Larry Brown/ Steve Lambert
Larry Brown taught me that it might be possible for someone like me to be a writer. Brown didn’t seem like a natural candidate for a writing apprenticeship, and neither did I.
Swing Shift, Two to Ten/ Jill Adams
There were twelve long rumbling lines and dozens of workers, with a catwalk overhead where a floor supervisor languidly prowled making sure we were all hustling and hurling. At the top of the hour the whistle blew and we had five minutes to use the toilet or sit down and rest.
Working Class Life Hacks #2
Dear Working Class Life Hacks,
I’m a subhuman piece of shit and I don’t know what month it is. Also, I forgot to get presents for Kwanzaaaa/X-Mas/Chanookahz. Can you help me?
From Granny Witch to Modern Midwife: Catching Babies in Eastern KY
My own personal experience with women’s care in Eastern Kentucky is pretty much limited to finding birth control as a teen. A friend drove me to the health department, and I ended up with a doc who was the mother of a younger school acquaintance. She was surprised that I was a virgin…
