Benjamin Kessler

Benjamin Kessler’s work has appeared, or is forthcoming in, Hobart, DIAGRAM, Entropy, The Oakland Review, Jet Fuel Review, Epigraph, Superstition Review, The Masters Review, The Gravity of the Thing, What are Birds?, and Portland Review. He lives and writes in Portland, Oregon.

COVER by Benjamin Kessler

The father is accompanying the daughter to the mall. The daughter wants very much to get her ears pierced, and while the father thinks she is too young, he has consented. Though only after making the daughter pull weeds from between the spaces in the driveway concrete. The father doesn’t simply give the daughter everything she wants. He makes her earn it, and this makes him feel like a good parent. He enjoys very much feeling like a good parent, especially in front of the mother.   The daughter wants candy from one of the turnstile vending machines and the father…

Continue Reading...