The middle-aged couple sitting passively on the stone bench have no use for this flagrant display of fluid desire that engulfs the park. Two other couples—one quite younger, one quite older—“go at it” like they’re competing in Double Jeopardy. Any minute the convivial host will appear with the final answer. Meanwhile, the Japanese tourists take countless pictures of the Lion chiseled on the side of a huge stone outcropping. The symbol of Switzerland’s defiance against the dreaded French in some long-forgotten siege, the Lion is skewered with so many arrows even Cupid would be amazed. It’s war, not love. But try telling that to the strident exhibitionists with their French kisses and dry humps. Not one of them is interested in a truce. The embarrassed couple on the bench must decide the winner: neutrality is not an option. They only want to disappear into the sculpted facade. To become the Lion’s closed eyes, his barely beating heart.

—From a manuscript-in-progress, Fragments from the New World

Bio: Linda Nemec Foster