Allison Renner

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She wasn’t sure if she was looking out or they were staring in, watching her stay in one place for so long she put down roots, felt each skin cell harden and become rigid, causing her to stand up straight—her mother would be proud—and look straight ahead. With a quick glance you’d think she was brimming with confidence, regal, but closer inspection shows her eyes darting back and forth, trying to see everything as if that would prepare her for what’s to come, when the ground crumbles between her toes and she’s the only thing left standing on the landscape, and even then she is slowly wasting away.

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Allison Renner’s fiction has appeared in Ellipsis Zine, Spartan, Six Sentences, Rejection Letters, Atlas and Alice, and Misery Tourism. Her chapbook Won’t Be By Your Side is out from Alien Buddha Press. She can be found online and on Twitter (@AllisonRWrites).