Issue 7 | Thresholds

Here, in 100 words or fewer, writers make quick work of compelling true stories, in the lead-up to Multiplicity‘s 2026 Spring/Summer issue, THRESHOLDS.

1994

by Maureen O’Connell

Did you see us?
three teenage girls
arms outstretched
deftly
placing one foot
in front
of the other
heel toeing forward
ever so slowly
tightrope walking
on a bridge
on a highway median
above the Missouri’s dark-blue depths.
We knew it in our bones:
fall one way
eat sidewalk,
fall the other
be roadkill.
See us,
unripe peaches, a hint of sweet but mostly bitter.
Three promenading waifs atop a concrete strip.
Three amazing alchemists transforming trauma into invincibility,
every molecule of life a wild cackle rising from our nubby chests.
Don’t you honk.
It makes us wobble.

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About the Writer

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