Editor’s Note

I cannot extract this time, or this issue of Vast Chasm, from the current political and social moment. In the pieces collected here, we are asked to consider how we handle grief and disappointment and anger. How we come to terms with what we cannot control. How we take charge when we can. And all this grappling—isn’t that what it is to be alive? Some days I feel near bursting with the desire to have a little agency, to claw my way to the changes I want to see, to simply choose this or that.

In making their own choices, these writers split a thing down the center and examine it from the inside, just as we may eventually break our systems and ourselves wide open to rebuild. Yes, it is difficult. But it is also transformative.

The world is on fire. Atrocities continue around the globe. We’re losing control. Smash. Boom. Go. Get yourself a shake. Or a cookie. Practice yoga. Make a donation. Take a walk. Create something beautiful. Dance your ass off. Grab coffee with a friend. Whatever it is, choose to take care of yourself. This is how we continue.

I am grateful to these contributors for exploring the vast chasm that is the human experience, for sharing what they’ve discovered inside, and for offering a small slice of light—encouraging us to do the same.

Table of Contents

Title	Genre	Writer
Mine Forever	Poetry	Juleigh Howard-Hobson
I Teach Pompeii	Flash Fiction	Madeline Crawford
Humane Solutions	Fiction	Charlotte Bruckner
Consumed	Poetry	Nicole Wilson
Corsage	Flash CNF	Annie Schoonover
The Day I T-Boned Troy’s Truck	Flash Fiction	Melanie Maggard
Shake It Up	Interactive	Vast Editors