Brood X

by Jen McConnell

Today a cicada flew into my neck but I didn’t kill it because I, too, am Generation X. At seventeen years old, I looked for love but settled for lust. I understood blending in to overwhelm predators. Seventeen years later, I hear their mating song in a new way. Less passion, more compassion. In another seventeen years, my own brood will be grown, thinking they are the first to emerge and sing this song.

6S

Jen McConnell can't believe she used to write 3,000-word stories.