was about that kid our age who
fell in a Wyoming hot spring and
dissolved before the park rangers
could find which hole he’d made.

 
 

Five Card Stud

Jonathan Aibel

 
 

I try to teach myself poker,
deal five hands all to myself.

My bluffs fail, my tells give
me away and I lose my pants

 

Russian Outlaw

Nate Ferguson

 
 

“Don’t pull off the tails,” she hollered. “They don’t grow back overnight.”
Vinyl panels at the corners of the ranch house were flapping while several rows of shin-
gles had long since departed. She didn’t have these problems when Benny was around. Her ex-
husband could put anything back together.

 

Interview Transcript

Cheryl Hopson

 

I started writing Black Notes in 2011, when I was living and teaching in Augusta, Georgia. I lived about five minutes from where the Masters golf tournament is held. So you know, where you see the billionaires flying in, Tiger Woods, where they're all playing. So it was a rich environment for me, monetarily for them, but also just the beauty of the landscape and being that close to that space.