Fifteen more, half pointless

 kw: story reviews, anthologies, literature, fiction, poetry

In the past two-plus days I have read fifteen more pieces in 2024 Pushcart Prize XLVIII: Best of the Small Presses, edited by Bill Henderson and others. Of the fifteen, nine are "poems". One of these, "Chemo Becomes Me" by Lily Jarman-Reisch resonated with me. I have been on chemo, and though I didn't lose hair (as the poet did), there were other effects. Also, this poem has rhyme and rhythm, being in couplets with a coda.

If the other eight free verse items are a kind of intelligence test, I utterly failed. To me, they are a waste of words. I suppose they really, really meant something to their authors.

I particularly liked "The Locksmith" by Grey Wolfe LaJoie. Though the words "autism" or "spectrum" never appear, the locksmith's condition is evident. Nonetheless, he copes. I was sympathetic to someone who must ride a bicycle because he can't get a driver's license. For about a year I didn't drive; because of an accident, the "best" insurance premium I could obtain was the cost of my car, per year. So I rode bicycle until the points dropped off my record.

The pieces that were stories affected me variously. Two worth mention are "The Ba'al Shem's Daughter" by Glenn Gitomer and "Everychild" by Alix Christie. From very different perspectives, they tell of parents who have lost control of a child, and cope about as badly as possible. I'll leave it to you to read and find out.

And I do hope you will read this volume and these stories. Maybe you'll even like the poems.

Coda: I prompted Dall-E3 with "A pushcart in the style of a bookplate sticker". Here are a couple of its offerings: