Narrative Magazine

“i’ve got on my pink sweater, pink corduroy trousers with red, red hearts embroidered. & after these stylishly cloistered weeks away, i’ll be kissing my boyfriend’s entire face very well. i’m happy, very.” —excerpt from “i’m sorry, i’m sorry” by Chen Chen

“If in the United States an election were found to be fraudulent, Nixon explained, ‘Then every pipsqueak in every one of these countries, if he lost an election, would simply bring a fraud charge and have a coup.’ ” —excerpt from Gail Godwin’s “The Art of Becoming a Citizen”

“he saw somebody at Johnson’s plantation he saw somebody beat/ thinks it was him there being no overseer only him plowing & his voice boot & club ’til he fell to the ground & got back up” —excerpt from “Blood Root” by Mara Adamitz Scrupe

“The fog lifts and there she is. I keep rehearsing the things I could have said. Like, ‘Show me; all I want to do is see.’ ” —excerpt from“Fog” by Kwame Dawes @kwamedawes

“My mother’s boyfriend laughed said now I was a / fake / Indian look-it her now yer / Indin / girl is a / fake / In-din My first Halloween off / the reservation / / white / Jeremiah told all his / white / friends that I was wearing his old costume”

“Imagining what those fields must now look like all covered in frost, and I think of my lost friend, who is done with imagining now.” —excerpt from “First Frost over Harvested Fields” by Ted Kooser

“The jealous Othello, ready for murder, was transformed into a school-boy.” —excerpt from Ivan Turgenev’s “First Love”

“Then accept the role of a wanderer. At least you can stand alone and become one of those who live and die on their own.” —excerpt from Ha Jin’s “Acceptance”

“Queenie couldn’t look away. The Portuguesa was pregnant. How many weeks until the baby dropped? Something form-fitting beneath the dress made it difficult to know, but she estimated something soon, maybe three weeks.” —excerpt from “The Queen of Providence” by Jane Lancellotti