NOTCH MAGAZINE

issues      events      shop 

Blue  Manifesto
    Letter from the Editor

Currents Brice AfonsoWorks in ProgressNibha AkireddyPlaying for DaysJon BennettRoman Candle  Oliver Beatty001: Potential Energy
Playlist
Hayden Carr-Loize and Pheobe Lippe
Cascade, Tooth, Circular Panel  
Sarah Chess
Expectations
Madeline Haze Curtis
Transmission I: spit with sonic weather
Claire Dauge-Roth
Try to Run
Clay Davis
Planning Time Off
Clay Davis
PoemSam ErteltUntitledUgo FerroUntitled, UntitledVitya FitsnerGray Cloud on San Jacinto PlazaDagoberto GilbThe Drunken WalkRobert Pogue HarrisonDead Friend Haunts Man with Mismatched Flip-Flops R. W. Haynes'On ne part pas' disait Rimbaud, FUWA, Journal
Marie Hazard
NorCal Wave (Series)
Eva Hoffman
Carlos y Pablo, agua y espuma, and other paintingsMaría Fragoso Jara
The Ballad of Jeff Bezos 
Margot Kaiser
And the Days Are
Not Full Enough

Lulu Lebowitz
The Many Lives of Energy
Anna-Sofia Lesiv
Douma, Schizein
Chrstipher Lyr
Pristine
Douglas Milliken
Tu es d'une sucrerie diabolique
Mona Neilson
Process of Sculpting Dream, Block-In of a Young ManKaelin PalcuOn the Street, In the Arena
Jonah Pruitt
Letter to You as a Tallgrass Meridian
Maxwell Putnam
Pandæmonium
Matthew Schultz
Spin, Measure, Cut
Molly Pepper Steemson
Untitled, Untitled
Oliver Stokes-Curtis
L'AppesaLorraine de ThibaultDiálogos IBruna VettoriAnonymized LetterxDirt Poem
Rachel Wolfe
Metanoia Arina ZhuravlevaUntitled #11 Arina ZhuravlevaLife as a Work of Art:
Henri Bergson on Possibility and Creation
Clara Zimmermann






Anonymized Letter



L,,



I’ve been trying so hard to not write this letter, but holding it in won’t work any longer.

I hope you’re well, that your family is healthy, that your work fulfills you. I think about these things often.

On xxxxxxxxxxxxxx – the winter solstice – I became a mother. My son’s name is xxxxxx. He is my whole world. I’m sure you know what I mean.

When you last messaged me, please know I wanted to respond so badly. At that time, I was in relationship with someone who had asked me to stop talking to every man I knew except my father and brother. I felt the need to be perfectly obedient to him, so I shut you out.

At that time I also believed, as I still do, that us not talking is in your family’s best interest.

I am so ashamed and deeply sorry for how I came between you and xxxx. Even though I did not initiate what happened, I am guilty for participating. For the sake of your relationship with her, I will never, ever say a word – but I wonder if you have considered coming forward, or done so already.

I did not realize until I became a mother how sacred family is, and how fragile.
I did not realize what we had sown until my (soon ex) husband cheated on me when I was pregnant and again at four months postpartum – on my birthday.

It’s very easy as a young, single woman to rationalize participation in men’s wrongs. As a mother who has seen the glee and unapologetic fervor of the tens of women who pursued my husband knowing that my son and I existed, I feel horrified.

I don’t have much else to say. I still think of you. Which I suppose, without wanting to be presumptuous but given our tie, likely means you still think of me.



With fondness from a distance,,


C

              © 2024, Notch Magazine, LLC