Just Before Retiring, the Elementary Teacher Pins a Note to the 1st Place Ribbon on the Winning Wisconsin Fast Plants Exhibit, K-4 Division

By Alyson Mosquera Dutemple / Issue 19

Child, for years now, I, too, have kept a science fair project. Rows of seedlings, arrays of cells
flourishing by tender attention, natural light. And I would like for you to understand what I have
come to learn: this is all any of us ever needs to know of growing.

ALYSON MOSQUERA DUTEMPLE’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Passages North, DIAGRAM, Lunch Ticket, and Wigleaf, among others, and her short story manuscript was recently named a runner-up for the 2022 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. She works as an editorial consultant and creative writing instructor in New Jersey and holds an MFA in fiction from The Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Find her on Twitter @swellspoken and at www.alysondutemple.com.