Barrett Bowlin

Barrett Bowlin’s stories and essays appear in places like Ninth Letter, Hobart, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, Salt Hill, and Bayou. Photos and links to his work online can be found at barrettbowlin.com.

CHILDISH THINGS by Barrett Bowlin

Hours after I first hear her voice in line at the bank, I make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the both of us with tall glasses of cold milk, edible memories from decades ago, and then she and I move to the daybed, together, her voice as cozy and warm as a mother’s breasts. “Point to something pink,” she says, my fingers on her chest. Her voice is bright and clear, a sparkling peal of sound, a live version of the recording made for the Little Reader for Girls I remember having in second grade, the one that took…

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