by Jiordan Castle
Featured Art: Dry Brook by Jervis McEntee

 A week to go &

still no word

on where they’re

sending him

this time. If you

search my father’s

first name, last

name, sex, &

race in a

federal inmate

database, you’ll see

he was released

the summer I turned

16, the summer

my dachshund Pepper

died, the summer

of the awkward

dinner at our favorite

restaurant. The

database lists options:

call or email, send

mail or package, send

money, visit, or voice

a concern; I

clicked the last

one because I had

some & there

I was forced to

confirm I’m not a

robot by selecting

all the images with

motorcycles in

them, but I

got distracted &

chose the ones

with fences

instead and

had to do it

again. Reunited

that summer, a basket

of warm naan between

us, I listened

as he spoke—

to the racing

pulse & whir of

the ceiling fan, its

dull blades

spinning overhead.

Jiordan Castle is the author of the chapbook All His Breakable Things (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Winner of the 2018 Pigeon Pages essay contest, her work has appeared in Verdad, Vinyl, Third Point Press, and elsewhere. She is a regular contributor to the LA-based food and culture magazine Compound Butter and lives in New York City. You can find her at jiordancastle.com and @jiordancastle everywhere else.