‘I soon understood that if I wanted to get my father back I was going to have to help him get rid of the competition.’
It was Mom who didn’t love him. As far back as I can remember, their marriage was an endless round of shouts and reproaches marked by timeouts to send me off to brush my teeth. They must have had a few good moments together, but I never witnessed any. Maybe they took place while I was brushing my …
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
