Fiction
Plenty More Rods in the Sea
Bass vibrates through the toilet door. My stomach roils. I put a hand on the clammy mirror, fighting the urge to vomit onto the floor. Deep breaths. Jesus, it’s hot. Where am I, anyway? “Excuse me,...
Poleridge
He eats for breakfast broken concrete, whale-gray, in the dregs of mineral water. His tooth snaps off. I mash my own cereal, frosted wheat, in the blue ceramic bowl that came with the house. The...
Fennel & Fescue, & Fennel
Odd brittles of black. Smeared on back of hand. A bug -- gnat, mosquito, fly? – what shortly ago working a wonder to avoid capture. Now sat where. Fescue Rodham sat alone the first of a long morning...
Maybe So
My father was long gone and I was an only child, so it was left to me to clean out my mother’s house after she passed away. I got rid of the majority of her things in an estate sale, donated...
The Materials of Us
At first, it was timid like tissue paper. Our connection. Unsure, slight. Vulnerable. It became more. Strengthened into cardboard. Sturdy. But bendable. Prone to rips. A few months...
Overexposed
A box fan droned as it held the window ajar, welcoming the stifling air that permeated my cluttered bedroom. I wrestled the temptation of sleep, sinking further into the embrace of musky pillows....
Conditioning
And I just couldn’t decide which of those states of being amounts to something more awful.
And I’m home from work now. And I still can’t.
Life Along the Mobius Strip
“Look at the ground here, Cal. You see all the scuff marks? I do believe this is where we were sitting when we woke. We’re back where we started from but it feels as if we’re looking backwards. I think I need to rest. Can we sit down?”
Aftermath
There wasn’t much movement in the snow without boots, so I wore the battered, stained pair I kept beside the bed. Sliding them on and double lacing, I recalled I bought them the winter before I...
Sumac
Down the sumac path, I chase you, then step on your heel, not understanding my speed. It’s too much of this body. Your tennie slides off. You grab my arm, irritated. Stand still! I will myself to be...
Tell Me I’m Being Punk’d
It’s been an hour since you went in for surgery that could save your life, and they’re telling me it’s too early to worry. It’s been two hours since your went in for surgery that could save you, and...
Working On It
I wanted a snake, so my roommate reluctantly agreed to drive to the snake store. They have all the snakes there, from tiny little garter snakes up to giant pythons, plus the rats and mice and crickets that go into them. But even a starter snake set up was a lot more expensive than I had thought. Even if we pooled our resources, it wouldn’t be enough, and my roommate was not the resources pooling type.
Save the Squonk
Nona reached into her fanny pack. “Fine, fine. If you don’t want to protect the forests for the squonk, why not Bigfoot? There’s been more sightings in upper Appalachia than the Pacific Northwest this year.” She pulled out a tiny button featuring the squonk’s face.
Star Crossed
The sky was ink and the stars were pinholes: white light bursting through in a magnificent sparkle. Below, in a field, fireflies mingled with the light of a film projector and the triumphant energy of teenagers out after dark. The field was a drive-in theater, the time was neither past nor future, but also it was both. It was nostalgia and it was hope; familiar faces and first kisses.
When We Were Giants
Before I knew about the rose world, I believed in things right in front of me, things I could touch and hold to my chest, manipulate with my hands and mind, and certainly not fairytales or fantasy worlds like the ones in childhood stories, but I was just folding the laundry with my back turned when I heard a loud tap on the window
Never Removed from Box
A mass-produced hunk of plastic, shaped vaguely like a human woman, but the proportions all wrong, the painted-on smile too wide, the dead eyes too big. It shouldn’t have a soul, and yet she does....
Save The Date
Miss Saskia-Chantelle Carriage and Mr Vince Process expectantly invite you to join them on their wedding day. The ceremony and celebration will begin on Friday 18th June, 2:30pm, in the Tenebrous...