Alec Solomita has published fiction in Heart of Flesh, Southword Journal, The Mississippi Review, and Southwest Review, among other publications. He was shortlisted by the Bridport Prize and Southword Journal, and named a finalist by the Noctua Review. His poetry has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Panoplyzine, Algebra of Owls, The Galway Review, The Lake, The Blue Nib (forthcoming),and elsewhere. His poetry chapbook, ‘Do Not Forsake Me,’ was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. He lives in Massachusetts, USA.

Short First-Person Bio

I’m not pushing seventy.
I’m pulling sixty, fifty,
forty, thirty, and all the way
back to and beyond the
first time
my mother
turned her brown, tip-dripping
nipples
away from me
toward
my infant brother.
That’s a lot of freight to haul.
And it might be why I’ve
slowed down a bit. All that
living, kicking up dirt and bruising
stones as I chug along in harness,
leaving a long trail of manure.