Read the winning piece of our 2025 Nonfiction Contest “Through the Mirror” by Jessie Cato selected by Lucy Ives.

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Jan/Feb 2020 • Vol. XLII No. 1 • Of Today |

Written after a Massacre in the Year 2018

It is the end of the afternoon and the sky will soon be purple but right now the desert light is orange and pink and the painter is able to illustrate how one side of the cage is in shadow and the other is in sun

The toddler in the painting looks exactly like the living toddler in the cage only the one on the canvas is naked but for a disposable diaper that sits high on its waist the one in the cage is wrapped in a red wool blanket

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