You weigh 214 lbs. Your bulletproof vest weighs 4 lbs. and 5 oz. Your duty belt weighs 14 lbs. and 13 oz. Some days, I want to know the weight of all the things you carry.
The Police Officer’s Wife by Melissa Knackmuhs Kiefer
Category: Creative Nonfiction
Letting Go: In Her Words by Lea Page
In theory, my husband and I supported the idea of Nina going away to school. The confines of our small rural town had become stifling for her… But was she ready?
Valentine’s Day by Andy Harper
…I was eleven years old, and six of those eleven years had been spent hopelessly in love with Audrey Kerr, the “little red-haired girl” of Clark County R-1
Inheritance by Allison Coffelt
When I drive back into the Missouri humidity after a few weeks away from home, I roll down my window and inhale. For a moment, I’d almost forgotten what we mean here when we say “hot.”
Second Breakfast by Kay Marie Porterfield
He smiles at the small white bag in my hand. I place it on his lap, and he clutches the top while I wheel him down the hallway to the empty nursing home cafeteria.
Shells by Chris Arthur
Two photographs of my Uncle Tony are the obvious place to begin. One shows him in an open grave with another man. In the second, he’s being embraced by a vampire.
Here But Not Here by Jennifer S. Brown
We sit in the harbor and I stare out, regretting my departure before I’ve even left. Haifa spreads out in front of me, teasing me. I think of him, the boy I left behind…
Genotype by Sarah M. Wells
When I walk into the Hitch’n Post for a gallon of milk, the cashier behind the counter calls out, “You must be a Fugman… you Roger’s daughter?”
Card Catalogues by Marcia Bradley
My daughter Frances is a reader. Not that she’d appreciate me telling you this. She doesn’t like me to categorize her. Even though saying someone is a reader should be good. Right? It’s not like saying she’s a thief.
Truth is a Foreign Object by Mary Scherf
Close to midnight, nine hours after my arrest, I heard the charges against me read. The court clerk spoke en Espanol. Enrique Gonzalez Rodriguez, a lawyer the embassy arranged to represent me, sat too close to me, translating.
