Suspicious skin
byEditor’s note: Each Thursday, we feature a throwback piece from Topology’s predecessor, catapult magazine. In this essay from 2010, Erin O’Connor-Garcia contemplates the new life…
To slow a nation
by the daily asteriskTo slow a beast, you break its limbs. To slow a nation, you break its people. You rob them of volition. You demonstrate your…
Dividing a dying woman’s land
by Marjorie MaddoxHer eyes blur the fields. She shrinks to a seed, forgets to speak, forgets to say how footprints till the layers of her brain,…
Real character
by the daily asteriskNothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But…
Exodus
by Christine DarraghAfter Rilke In the beginning, your word: Light And there was time. A long Absence, then your second: Man Who brought forth doubt; Uneasy…
The rules
by Rick KempaWe stood on a curb in Winnemucca in the dark, December 1980. Snow-pellets swirled in headlights and stung our faces and scudded down the…
Slippery stuff
by the daily asteriskYou can’t build a house without nails and wood. If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t…
Love of power
by the daily asteriskIt is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its Administration, to confine…
Risk 1
by Zach BartzChicago, Illinois (August 2016) Using a Risk board game, I was inspired by the countries’ outlines as a way to designate the shape of…
The man who lies to himself
by the daily asteriskThe man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within…