A unique anniversary

The University Bookstore of Seattle, Washington has a special birthday to celebrate this year--the store turns 110 on January 10 (1/10)  and they've invited 110 authors to submit stories of 110 words to be published in a limited print run book entitled 110|110. Shelf Awareness has been publishing some of the stories, and I especially loved this one, which ran Tuesday. Just so happens that it's written by Molly Gloss, author of two of our staff picks: The Jump-Off Creek and The Hearts of Horses.

What We Will Do On Our Last Day

We'll gather at a table, all of us,
a table laid with fragile china plates,
old silver handed down on someone's wedding day,
yellow iris in a painted vase
brought back from Mexico or France.
There will be summer salad,
tomatoes warm from someone's garden,
ice cream we've cranked by hand.
We'll raise a glass to friends already gone,
speak of books we ought to have read twice,
say again the poems that bespoke our lives.
And as the dusk begins to deepen,
the candles stuttering in their cups of beveled glass,
we'll lean in to one another, our shoulders touching,
and none of us will face the dark alone.

And for a bit of fun, here's Tom Robbins' contribution:

Gemini Rising

The world's only two-headed dog is barking at the moon tonight in Walla Walla. The dog's owner, who calls himself Jim Jim, settled in Walla Walla with his two-timing second wife, LuLu, after twice contracting--first in Pago Pago, then in Bora Bora--beri beri, a disease that caused him to double over with pain. The healing waters of Baden Baden eased his malady, but it was not until a doctor in Walla Walla advised Jim Jim to take two aspirin and call him in the morning that he fully recovered. Now he's content to watch his dog, Boutros Boutros-Collie, woof woof at the moon in Walla Walla.