Mary Hower

There was a sewing machine already in the wings as they laid their fig leaves aside. They didn't turn the game off, bottom of the seventh, a line drive to center— they watched it with one eye each. Didn't take off her blouse with the flowers, or hi [...]

My mother stood with her back to me, her nosegay-printed dress back to me, a jackal leashed by her side. How small his mouth looks she said, and I nodded. I saw the moon stippled stucco when she sang "Moon Shines Its Lamp." I pounded meat with a plat [...]

Backyard Pool. July. Yellow Rectangle Raft. My sister and I like to play drowning and tea party— see how long you can stay under. With others we call it a tea party; alone, it's drowning. I poke my head up into the raft. The body on it bounces me d [...]