Nonfiction – Page 7 – PLEASE SEE ME

Lullaby for the Dead—Julia McDonald

Nonfiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Lullaby for the Dead by Julia McDonald y heart is sore, like a bruise behind my sternum. Last night, a sixteen-year-old was brought to the clinic in shock after hemorrhaging for eighteen hours at home. Her grandmother, with sparse hatchling hair sprouting from her bald skull and cheekbones like bird wings, wrung her hands and murmured: “I had to collect firewood. I didn’t know what ...

Borderless Dream—Zinaria Williams

Nonfiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Borderless Dreams by Zinaria Williams could not wait to leave. On a salary that equated to eight dollars per hour, I worked over ninety hours a week at a program that did not enforce the eighty-hour work week rule. I endured thirty-six-hour shifts every four days. My next day often began even though the previous one never ended. Twenty years ago, as a Black ...

At the Gas Station—Tiffany Avery

Nonfiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 At the Gas Station by Tiffany Avery hen I found her at the gas station, her slow movements, blank stares, and depressed cognitive abilities told me she was probably on drugs. I had no idea which kind. But there she was, alive. I immediately knew I was lucky. When I found her at the gas station, she could not recall what she had been doing for ...

Funeral Songs—Raymond Wlodkowski

Nonfiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Funeral Songs by Raymond Wlodkowski bout six years ago, at age seventy-two, I began to have difficulty maintaining an erection. That led to seeing a urologist and the discovery that I had serious prostate cancer. A lab test revealed my prostate specific antigen (PSA) count was 184, more than forty times the high point of the normal range. There was cancer in my bones as ...

In a Near Future 1968 Again—Paul Rousseau

Nonfiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 In a Near Future, 1968 Again by Paul Rousseau ebbie is in a room in a warehouse in the backstreets of a small border town, the air redolent with a putrid stench. She lies on a dilapidated exam table, the paper crumpling and cracking as she nervously shifts her weight. Her boyfriend clutches her hand, his head slumped like a wilted flower. A man in ...

Henk’s Choice—Hanne Jensen

Nonfiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Henk's Choice by Hanne Jensen January 15th, 2019 6 p.m. It is dark but has stopped raining when Tom and I head back across the street. The living room is lit with candles, and Henk is sitting in his favorite orange sofa, a half-filled cognac glass in his hand. He is ready. His husband, Martin, is packing a suitcase in the bedroom. He tears up when he ...

Too Many Broken Hearts—Catherine MacKenzie

Nonfiction Issue #9: Open Call November 19th, 2021 November 19th, 2021 Too Many Broken Hearts by Catherine MacKenzie s soon as the plane landed in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and I collected my suitcase, I raced out of the airport. I gasped when the bitter December wind hit my face, a sharp contrast to the 85-degree temps I’d left in Mexico where my husband and I were wintering. The cold jarred me to attention after traveling for ...

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Coping—Melissa Brand

Nonfiction Issue #8: Rest & Recovery August 19th, 2021 August 19th, 2021 Coping by Melissa Brand t sixteen, I devoured books about troubled children—teens breaking with reality, kids like me, suffering and healing. The Best Little Girl in the World. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. The Bell Jar. Ms. Hammaren, the school librarian, aware of my interest in psychology, fed me these books. At lunch, when I wasn’t at home unable to get out ...

How to Grieve—Jennifer Ng

Nonfiction Issue #8: Rest & Recovery August 19th, 2021 August 19th, 2021 How to Grieve by Jennifer Ng e thankful that Po Po, your maternal grandmother, passed away before the pandemic begins. Stay silent as others worry about their vulnerable family members as COVID-19 spreads across the world. Feel small whenever you’re told, “Speak up.” Meaning that they couldn’t hear you. Or maybe they never noticed you speaking in the first place. Hear your father say, “She’s dying” ...