Lukman Nurudeen Adeniyi "God Was Definitely Showing Off" ‎Adesewa, I was going to write about the stars, But they warned me gently: “Ah, don’t bring Adesewa into this… We will lose.” I have seen many beautiful things, But nothing stays with me Like your name does. Your name looks good in my future, And my future keeps asking about you. ‎ ‎Adesewa, You have the kind of smile That makes me suspicious God was showing off. If I could, I would gather the evening sky, The moonlight, And the smell...

Napkin Holder Anne Bower The lanky young man sitting across from me in the shed held up one of my chicken napkin holders, and with his other hand, caressed its wooden form. Silly things—orange and yellow with red beaks and buttony eyes, green with white centers. “Where’d you get them?” he asked. “You know, I don’t rightly recall.” You get past sixty-five and sixty-six memories go all tumbled. Maybe I’d bought them or maybe Alice did. Or one of the kids gave them to us at a past Christmas....

"There's a Frog in My Mailbox" J.S. Sahanya Nanayakkara There was a frog in my mailbox for most of February. At least, I think it was February. It might’ve been March. Memory stretches the things you want to keep, but let’s say February. This became normal remarkably quickly. Humans adapt to anything gradually, and a frog in a mailbox is apparently within our adaptive range. By the second week, my grandmother named it Gemba, Sinhalese for "frog" (which is pretty unoriginal if you ask me), but...