TOM LINED THE CROSSHAIRS of his Ruger’s scope on the hump of tattered gray-and-brown hair. The arched back peeked above the snow bluff, moving ever so slightly, the head of the creature likely burrowing in search of a meal. It was mid-winter when the snow was deepest and food scarce. Animals had to be resourceful. … Continue reading American Jackal
She wears jeans with flowers and lace and watches the fascinating games of men, football, soccer, sundry other competitions. She wants to write the ballad of too late, where they strike iron when reality has cooled way down and merely makes a sound but not much difference, all the while knowing that, though nobody looks, … Continue reading Game Night
BOTTOM OF THE 4TH and we’re up two, but they got guys at first and third, two out. We were out of the inning but Palmer dropped a third strike and threw the ball into right field trying to get the runner at first. From the dugout I can hear him muttering, “Fucking stupid, fucking … Continue reading Coaching
I’m not like you, I think as I timidly take one of three remaining seats. I already know I am mistaken, though. I am the white-haired woman with the walker and the fluid bottle attached to her arm and the belly spilling forward. I am the skinny blonde sitting next to me. I am the … Continue reading On The Bus
EVERY MORNING, I GET OUT OF BED.Sometimes, I think I might not. That it might be better for me to pull the covers over my head and burrow deep like a hedgehog until summer combs its fingers through my hair. But I resist, because I am a human girl and it is only March. I … Continue reading Earthworm Buffet at the End of the World
By then I was tired of your ballet jokes. Our Thirty Years War started with a sequence of red roofs and a glimpse of the Žižkov TV Tower. Kundera called Prague a disappearing poem. I don’t know. I drank Velvet beerwith girls in Slayer shirts; You drank boys. The moon drank blood. The two Josephs … Continue reading Friends & Neighbors
I TOLD THEM I’d be the one to bring her down. Capiche? Fine, they said. Sure. You do that. But what’s the hurry now? Everything’s frozen solid up there. Capiche? It might as well be Ice Station Zebra up there and there’s no by God helicopter. I said that doesn’t matter and they said just … Continue reading The Burden
Summer is peak King — Stephen, not Charles or Frederik. I almost died swimming to the floating raft at Gilbert Lake. The moon is jerking me around. Stars fall out of the sky like doorknobs and in every dream I’m in an abandoned hotel in the Catskills. First love, too late — and now… what … Continue reading Cheap Art
9:37 a.m. YOUR DICK GETS HARD every time you pass a pharmacy, a car wash, a cab stand, a homestyle diner, or a Starbucks now because you usually find them there, standing in line for their nonfat soy no-whip Caramel Macchiatos and the pre-work is easy: some banter, some pointed elevator looks, some lingering casual … Continue reading You Just Want To Feel Better
after the movie, riding elevators down between three lobby floors: past the concessions and the bar which would serve us these sweet apple cocktails on Fridays between pictures when we were 16. the carpet the same as it was then, with probably popcorn rinds we dropped still in place: why would anyone vacuum a cinema? … Continue reading The Right Angle Upward