ON CONCORD STREET

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

One of the most disheartening of recent circumstances is the way in which those on Concord Street are being are drawn into the conflict. Most certainly, the Petersons did not wish to side with the Howards any more than did the Robinsons or the Winstons wish to take up the position of the Pollans; and there is every reason to believe that the death of Addie Brickdale was painful for her family not only because it deprived them of their matriarch but because it erased their last link to neutrality. Among other things that will have to be reconsidered after the resolution of this dispute is the relations of neighbors to other neighbors, and particularly assumptions around alliances that are rooted in race, age, and, most perniciously, faith.