Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
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    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
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    • Orion Allen
    • Mark DeCarteret 2024
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    • Alexandria Peary 2023
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    • Mark DeCarteret
    • Dennis Hinrichsen Poetry
    • Daniel Biegelson
    • Natan Last
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    • D E Steward
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
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    • Isabelle Doyle
    • Kathleen Heil
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    • Lauren Tess
    • Cesca Janece Waterfield
    • Billy Cancel Poetry
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    • Mark Decarteret
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    • Maureen Thorson
  • Fiction
    • On Experimental Fiction
    • Leonnard Menifee, "The Long, Long Ice Picks At the Old Frostee Freeze"
    • Maisy Phelps, "Marina and Marina and Marina and Marina"
    • Mary Lewis, "Red Knees"
    • Anna Mantzaris, "Strange Magic"
    • Ross Kimberlin, "The Queen of Emilys"
    • Mark Cassidy, "How I Met My Wife"
    • Emily Trachtenberg, "Plum"
    • Hector Donovan-Gonzalez
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Art
Picture

CHRISTOPHER LINFORTH

Zia


​There is part of our sister we cannot see. We trail her into the house, into her bedroom, shadow her into the boxy en-suite. She strips off her bright orange sundress, lets it drop to the marbleized vinyl floor. She glimpses the mirror and unhooks her bikini top, then fingers the bottoms. We try to look. But her pale body is turned away. We edge through the doorway. Rolls of fat rib her belly. She bends over and pulls out the scale; she stands on the platform, closes her eyes. In her moment of blindness, we sneak behind her, hide in the shower cubicle, draw the frosted curtain in front of us. Through the translucent plastic, we watch our sister peering at the dial of the scale. We see the inverse of the numbers she sees. Below her breasts, a glyph tattoo inks a section of skin: lines radiate from an invisible circle. The symbol resembles a star, but we know it is not a star. A year ago she disappeared to New Mexico, then she came back and said she had met someone in Taos. Her skin had browned. She had colorful beads twisted into her hair. She spoke of the man from the Pueblo, his stall of fry bread and clay pottery. She told us she was a stage of life ahead of us. Her words puzzled us. We eavesdropped on her calls, read her emails and postcards, thumbed through her texts. They talked in code; they mentioned love and birth and running away. We kept reading until she stopped communicating with the man, with our parents, with us. Now, we pull back the curtain. We look into the center of the circle, for the hole beneath the glyph, the missing part of her, the place where our sister used to be.

​
Copyright © July 2020 Christopher Linforth

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Christopher Linforth has recently published fiction in Fiction International, Hotel Amerika, Epiphany, Notre Dame Review, Day One, and Descant, among other magazines. He has been awarded fellowships and scholarships to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

published by
The MFA in Creative and Professional Writing Program
Department of Language, Literature, Culture, and Writing

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
Copyright © 2012-2025 Map Literary
Map Literary

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  • About
    • Masthead
    • Submissions
    • NJ High School Writing Contest
    • Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award
    • NJ Undergraduate Writing Contest
    • In Print
    • Subscribe
    • Internship Opportunity
    • Links
    • WPU MFA
  • Nonfiction
    • Jill Darling, "Linger Here"
    • Charles Tarlton, "Har Mĕgiddōn (הר מגידו): The Coming American Fiasco"
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
    • Jan Jolly, "Through My Father's Glasses"
    • Kristina Moriconi, "Still Looking"
    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • Jim Daniels
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Poetry
    • Orion Allen
    • Mark DeCarteret 2024
    • Mary Christine Delea
    • Kara Lewis
    • Jim Daniels
    • Martine van Bijlert
    • Adam Day
    • Sunday T. Saheed
    • Alexandria Peary 2023
    • Fiona Lu
    • Harley Chapman
    • Richard Ryal
    • Sherwood Anderson
    • Mark DeCarteret
    • Dennis Hinrichsen Poetry
    • Daniel Biegelson
    • Natan Last
    • Michael Chang
    • D E Steward
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
    • David Dodd Lee
    • Isabelle Doyle
    • Kathleen Heil
    • Leonard Kress
    • Lauren Tess
    • Cesca Janece Waterfield
    • Billy Cancel Poetry
    • Scott Minar
    • Mark Decarteret
    • Greg Glazner
    • Bruce McRae
    • Maureen Thorson
  • Fiction
    • On Experimental Fiction
    • Leonnard Menifee, "The Long, Long Ice Picks At the Old Frostee Freeze"
    • Maisy Phelps, "Marina and Marina and Marina and Marina"
    • Mary Lewis, "Red Knees"
    • Anna Mantzaris, "Strange Magic"
    • Ross Kimberlin, "The Queen of Emilys"
    • Mark Cassidy, "How I Met My Wife"
    • Emily Trachtenberg, "Plum"
    • Hector Donovan-Gonzalez
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Art