GENEALOGY
by Sara Bickley
genealogy

My mother’s people are Norwegian. All that means is my sister impersonates
Saint Lucy every December and we eat ham and rice porridge on Christmas Eve.
That’s not even quite right, because Saint Lucy is a Swedish custom. I am so
patriotic that once on Syttendemai I turned down an offer of Swedish Fish.

My father’s people are mostly Polish. The Poles have all sorts of strange
traditions, like the Black Madonna of Częstochowa and Pope John Paul the S
econd. They eat a second breakfast at eleven o’clock, like hobbits. My mother is
sure that any day now she will find Jewish blood on that side. Then won’t
Father be surprised.

 

 

 

 

A BIOGRAPHY: part ii
by Becca Pollock
A Biography part ii

He went to Boy Scout Camp but couldn’t tie a sheepshank knot, so the next
summer his parents dropped him off at a clown camp in Utah. He learned to
juggle five pears and walk a tight rope. At night he swapped secrets with the
strong man. By September he was six feet tall; they had put stilts in his legs
during the night.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sara Bickley is a student at the University of Montana. Her work has previously appeared in The Prose-Poem Project, Vector, and Sein und Werden.

Becca Pollock is a writer living in Boston. Her work has appeared in Whiskey Paper and Specter Magazine. She can be found on Twitter @peccabollock and beccapollock.com

 

 

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