Again That Year

by Douglas A. Martin

‘tis the season: his mother calls as we put up our own tree (December). Neighbors' blue holiday lights: the dry heat season, early morning nose bleed (November). At the top of Crown Street: the leaves atop the tree go golden (October). I board the bus (September). Watching through windows: fawn become deer (August). The dog’s bark annoys: because your inner thought wants to sound out else wise (July). Summer camp kids line up to fly inside to a marquee feature (June). The way I was held onto by you: he holds onto his pillow (May). Each morning at the funeral home the steps are swept (April). Birds go up as snow comes down (March). If only up an hour earlier, I would have seen far fewer cars on the work walk (February). How many inches of this whiteness with nothing green to tell (January).

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Two One-Sentence Stories

by Douglas A. Martin

Independence

We tried to not watch the police presence everywhere while through the bars of the bridge seeing fireworks after planes overhead to runway to land.

Property of the Pasture

To afford his grandchildren more yard room to play, the Pastor cuts down a century’s old maple.

With works spanning fiction and nonfiction, poetry and prose, Douglas A. Martin has published ten books, including Outline of My Lover, named an International Book of the Year in The Times Literary Supplement and adapted in part for the multimedia live film ballet, Kammer/Kammer. Douglas's most recent title, Wolf, creates narrative meditation around a sensationalized case of patricide and has been called "an anti true crime novel."