The circles of life in the dance studio “Shannon is a beautiful dancer,” said Miss Adrienne, the studio director. Then Shannon got a boyfriend, and quit dancing. “I’m not feeling it anymore,” she told Miss Adrienne, who cried that day. Miss Adrienne was a ballet purist. The other teachers knew (as did she, very well)…Read More
Articles from February 2020
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MONADNOCK UNDERGROUND RELEASING QUARTERLY PRINT ANTHOLOGY
Issue #2, Late Winter, to debut on March 6 at Peterborough Library Release Party PETERBOROUGH, NH, February 26, 2020—Local literary journal and media company Monadnock Underground has announced that it’s second print magazine anthology will be available on March 6. Following up on the success of the first quarterly, released in December, the 68-page glossy issue contains fifteen original works from…Read More
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Knocking – Part IV
We all knew it wouldn’t be long before they let themselves in, and we would have to jump I am finding it harder to block them out. I had hoped, days ago now, that their knocking would become white noise, like the static of the radio when Father left it on at night, falling asleep…Read More
Author photo. PETESTERS.
An Anxious Yankee Bonapartism
A wizard’s strangled cry on NH Primary Day 1:27 PM on Primary Day, sitting in Flight Coffee’s new cafe hidden deep within a Bedford industrial park, and a small three-person platoon of weathered Michael Bennet supporters strolls in as though there’s nothing weird about that. 1:27 PM on Primary Day and there’s still Michael Bennet…Read More
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The Gabagool Primary
New Jersey sounds off with profound Primary Envy Oh how I envy the fine people of New Hampshire! You don’t know how good you have it. You get to go second in the presidential primary process (I know you think you go first but who are you kidding), remind everyone you aren’t Iowa, and enjoy…Read More
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Knocking – Part III
I was only told by Mother much later that Brother had seen Gabriel die There was one thing Father did overlook, however. Maybe it was an oversight, or maybe it was something he just procrastinated on and resigned himself to the facts later. The time before he went into the market to buy meat and…Read More
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Thanks
A moment of gratitude in a New England mill town gripped by heroin We break the padlock and open the door. I can taste the air before I smell it. My goggles are pinching my nose closed, and I feel the air, stale and thick, sticking to the inside of my mouth. “Watch for needles,”…Read More
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Signs of the Times
An Ornithological Look at the New Hampshire Primary This is an updated 2020 version of a 2004 piece that appeared in Chester College’s literary magazine. Imagine my surprise when I checked my answering machine and heard a familiar voice: “Hello, this is George W. Bush…” Beep. That was the only message. Oddly, the then-President forgot…Read More
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Knocking – Part II
A dead father, a stubborn horse, and the knocking crescendo I found four more candles in a wooden chest I located in the far back of the basement. The light was gone so I resorted to feeling my way along the walls of the basement until I stumbled over the chest. It wasn’t locked. I…Read More