Three Moments
by Eric Bosse
NEW YEAR’S EVE
Our daughter comes through in a tutu, chopping off the heads of imaginary goblins with a plastic ax. Our son hops through on her trail, flimsy football helmet perched on his head. He declares himself the Prince of Superheroes: “Tom’s the name!” My wife braids her hair and scrolls her phone for news. My socks are thick. My toes are cold. Snowflakes zigzag past the windows. A moment in time. Gone. This happened years ago if it happened at all.
WOMS
I show the girl a photo of a wombat. She is disappointed to discover that a wombat is not, in fact, a bat with woms. I ask her what a wom is. “I don’t know,” she says. “That’s what I was excited to find out.”
UNREALITY
The boy in the car seat shouts, “Stinky toot!” The girl says, “Hush now.” I say that wasn’t a nice thing to say. The boy says, “Don’t worry, Papa, you just imagined it.” I glance at the rearview mirror and say, no, I heard it. “Oh, then don’t worry, Papa,” he says, “I just imagined it.”
Eric Bosse is the author of Magnificent Mistakes (Ravenna Press 2011) and his stories have appeared in The Sun, The Collagist, FRiGG, Hobart, Wigleaf, New World Writing, and Matter Press.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Three Moments”? These pieces come from a chapbook I’m putting together, gathering more of these moments from this time. Lately, I’m dwelling on the looming transition from parent-of-children to parent-of-adults; and sometimes it feels like the very best part of my life is about to end. I’ve collected moments like these over the years, written them down as transcriptions of life. When I recently returned to these, each moment felt entirely whole and alive to me, years after they happened. They are minor moments, yet they feel durable enough to last for an eternity. I’ve grown obsessed with the brevity of our time on earth and the knowledge that the planet is four and a half billion years old. If I’m lucky, I’ll get seventy-five or eighty or ninety years–barely a breath in the life of this rock, which, itself, is a speck in a vast, expanding universe. I am overwhelmed, nearly every second. These are the ripples I’ve made.
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
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Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
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12/15 • Isabelle Ness
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