JEFF FRIEDMAN has published eleven collections of poetry and prose, including Broken Signals (Bamboo Dart Press, 2024), Ashes in Paradise (Madhat Press, 2023 and The Marksman (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020). His work has appeared in Best Microfiction 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, New Republic, Flash Fiction Funny, Plume, Smokelong Quarterly, Wigleaf, Rattle, Poetry, Fiction International, Midway Journal, and American Poetry Review. He has received an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship and numerous other awards. More of Jeff's work can be found at Vox Populi.
Sylvia, my lover, owns an African Yellow Parrot that she named Shirley Jones. Shirley Jones sits on her shoulder or head singing songs from the musical Carousel. When I come over one night a week, she gets locked in her cage, which is so big that it sits on the floor and houses 6 trees, innumerable shrubs, 4 trapeze swings,… Read more →