The jellyfish take the 6:00 AM train down to the beach. Some of the jellyfish make it through the sliding doors, some of them fall off the platform onto the tracks. I am the only not jellyfish on the train. The jellyfishes’ electric thoughts paint the ceiling of the car, the windows lit with neon … Continue reading Untitled (Jellyfish Poem)
THE SCIENCE FICTION WRITER waited outside the hotel, a revolver hanging heavy in the inner pocket of his overcoat. He’d only fired it twice, but at close range he didn’t imagine he’d have any difficulties. His hand was steady as he brought a cigarette to his mouth and puffed; in any case, it was all … Continue reading Zero/One
I’ve been dreaming in my room, not getting anything done. Dreaming about finding pennies from the Roaring ’20s. Picking up the phone all the time, then immediately putting it down. Dancing in a silver light threatening to turn gray. Waiting for everything to equalize. Dreaming and waiting and dreaming of a chance to dream free, … Continue reading Almost Rich
ALL THAT WINTER, they watched it. Someone had cleared a rectangle of snow from the frozen pond, or lake, whichever it was, that lay at the northernmost side of their neighborhood in Ypsilanti where the streets began to yield to farms, and at one end of the ice they placed a hockey net. But it … Continue reading The Difference Between a Lake and a Pond
I GUESS I OWE everything to the old moose head hanging over the front desk at the Beaver Lake Lodge in Wild Duck, Minnesota. It is a rather large obnoxious thing even for me and it usually needs dusting. The first time I visited the lodge I was just out of college likely trying to … Continue reading Why James Tate and I May Write Alike
Here are Hidden Peak Press' 2025 Pushcart Prize nominees.
I finally got a refrigerator that dispenses cold, cold ice and water purified by a filter. Some people have these all their lives and some people never have them. I always go for ice now and I go for the purified water. My wife says it tastes better but I don’t know. What I do … Continue reading A lower middle-class laborer explains the economics
AS SOON AS he saw the interior of Maya Winger’s garage, Ram knew he’d be grateful to finish the day broke. She clearly knew she wasn’t just selling her father’s old junk; she offered something else: the man’s actual thoughts, his genius. That was going to cost Ram. Climate-controlled and brightly lit, the garage was … Continue reading Time Signatures
And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him . . . And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them. 2 Kings 2:23-24 I … Continue reading Going to Bethel
Meg yells ‘whoa’ on the Ferris wheel but the spinning doesn’t stop. Harold chews one regret after another on a bed made for two. Jackie keeps walking the dog the opposite way it wants. Joe continues to converse with an enemy he imagines. Marge says her husband is a hell-of-a-man and hates him for it. … Continue reading People I Know, But Pretend Not To