Flash February!
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....
Epiphany VIII: To Journalists & Other Good People
Why do you use the euphemisms insurrection and riot and avoid the more informative (while equally accurate) term lynch mob? Can't you drop the mask and say what's what? There was not only a noose...
The Multiverse is Made of Construction Paper
Red pieces pepper from my son’s scissors, staining the white linoleum kitchen floor. Somewhere in the multiverse, the red isn’t paper. I imagine them as fish scales in this universe, autumn leaves...
Portrait: November 4, 2024
Just like old times, I’m pitter-pattering at the Johnson Learning Center at Middlesex College on a Monday afternoon. I’m heading for a small box of free pencils, so I can work on this print-out...
Conditioning
Today while driving the tractor, I saw a helicopter go by overhead. It had a rope ladder dangling from it. Does every helicopter come with one of them? The way it hung made it seem arbitrary. Like a...
Life Along the Mobius Strip
Cal and Bal were sitting on the ground, backs pressed together, their legs extended straight out. Their shoulders were sore, as if they were cinched together with a broad belt, the type used to...
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...
Shortly after I learned about God, I turned him into Cheerios
Shortly after I learned about God, I turned him into Cheerios and blasted him to death with piss. I must have been four or five. There was a box of Cheerios in the bathroom, and my parents had...
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...
Save the Squonk
“I understand ma’am, but…if I’m honest, I don’t care. It seems like it’s survival of the fittest anyways. Weak little thing deserves to go.” Nona reached into her fanny pack. “Fine, fine. If you...
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...
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...
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...