Creative Nonfiction – SugarSugarSalt Magazine

A Micro By K.B. Carle

Divorced By Amy Barnes

DIVORCED A car the size of a house rams our house that’s the size of a house. Thunder from a 1986 Thunderbird shakes me out of my canopy bed to the window to the street. It’s the moment I know my mother is a liar, a big one. She lays there lazy for too longContinue reading “Divorced By Amy Barnes”

At Home, Adrift by Rashi Rohatgi

In lockdown, my son sings in the bath. “U is for ulta-pulta,” he says, quoting his current favorite book. He warns his wooden flamingo, “Here comes a topsy-turvy wave!” The research suggests that trying to pass on a language sans context to a third generation is hopeless, but I cannot stop. His first blocks wereContinue reading “At Home, Adrift by Rashi Rohatgi”

Two Micros by Jared Povanda

The Idea of a Thing is Not the Thing Itself This boy wants a cat for the idea of a cat. Real responsibility chokes him. This boy wants to embody the writer—navy sweater, gold chinos, salmon boat shoes, honey hair tousled, thick brown glasses, posing with the frothing sea at his back, black feline inContinue reading “Two Micros by Jared Povanda”

Driving Like a Boss by Myna Chang

T-Rex dislikes my neighbor’s dog. It’s a vicious little yapper. T-Rex is afraid Neighbor-Dog will bite his foot. Stop being a wimp, I say. Stomp that mutt. Sometimes Neighbor-Dog chases my kid. Don’t let that yapping menace chase my kid, I say. Use those big dinosaur feet. T-Rex would rather go water skiing. Fine, I say. But I can’t drive the boat. There’s too much turbulence. I’ll do it, T-Rex says. Vroom vroom.Continue reading “Driving Like a Boss by Myna Chang”

Two Micros by Melissa Llanes Brownlee

Tweezer Your hair is going gray but you don’t want to dye it yet. That would admit defeat. I part its darkness in uneven rows, with a comb, starting in the front and working my way to the back, hunting. Pull it out from the root, you instruct, but I can’t get a good gripContinue reading “Two Micros by Melissa Llanes Brownlee”

Wild Thing by Eileen Vorbach Collins

Her tail is up and there is a spring to her step as my Labrador non-retriever mix heads out on her morning walk through the manicured landscape of our gated, cookie-cutter community. The Saint Augustine grass is thick and coarse and while she is not fond of the feel of it on her paw pads,Continue reading “Wild Thing by Eileen Vorbach Collins”

Motherhood (Or Lack Thereof) by Maegan Gwaltney

My two small nephews and tiny niece climbed out of the couch cushion fortress on the bedroom floor. As the first sliver of sunlight whispered through the blinds, they jumped around me on the bed, shouting the details of their dreams. I was in my early twenties and loved my older sister’s kids- the weaselsContinue reading “Motherhood (Or Lack Thereof) by Maegan Gwaltney”

Driving & Crying by Steve Edwards

There I am, 24, crying my eyes out at the stoplight at 9th & Main, crossing the Tapawingo Bridge and beating the steering wheel. There’s my car — a gold Saturn. The one the salesman kneed hard to prove its side-panels wouldn’t dent. As I remember it, the problem was that I wanted everything backContinue reading “Driving & Crying by Steve Edwards”

The Last Six Cookies in the Package by Hannah Grieco

For the middle of the night, sneaking out of your bed, wide awake and hungry: a peach, leftover spaghetti, the last six cookies in the package. Eat fast, before your parents wake up, before the furnace kicks in downstairs, before monsters creep toward you from the shadows. Slink back to your room, bursting but notContinue reading “The Last Six Cookies in the Package by Hannah Grieco”