As she dressed for church, Nikki studied her reflection in the mirror and imagined cutting all her hair off, smearing her face with lipstick, and bashing her head against the glass until it broke. She opened the vanity drawer. Inside she stared at a pair of scissors. Her hand floated over them before she closed the drawer and finished applying the rest of her makeup. A lapsed Catholic, she rarely went to church anymore. She never went anywhere  except work. Every day she w

Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated. -- Terry Tempest Williams I dreamed about prison again. I hate dreaming about prison. The last time I dreamed of prison I woke up and immediately started crying. In the dream, I was sentenced for years and I would only be able to see my

Safe Landing , by Michael Braswell      The harvest that grew in the loamy soil in the county of Suffolk would have to wait after the Americans arrived.  Crushed stones from broken pieces of London transformed wheat fields and vegetable gardens into runways where instruments of survival and retribution descended in droves. In short order, farm fields became airfields, home to B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators complements of the United States Eighth Air Force.    The