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
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.
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
I STUMBLE TOWARD SHORE, my teeth clacking together like musical spoons. After carrying me just a few yards, my wobbly pins introduce me face-first to the sand. I lie in a shivering heap and wait for the late afternoon sun to broil the chills from my body. After the tremors abate, I hotfoot it to … Continue reading What Happens in BC
WE'RE ALL IN the same space and time, but experiencing different perspective realities. The woman next to me is prosaic. The guy behind me is screaming his esophagus out. And I’m bug-eyed with excitement because I know I’m the winner of a one-in-a-trillion experience. I’m always in the present, and that keeps me balanced and … Continue reading Bliss of Perspective Reality
SAM SAT IN HIS usual mom and pop on East Colfax waiting for his usual lunch. When the waitress arrived with the bowl of green chile stew he’d accidentally caught a glimpse of the TV screen on the wall to his right, his remaining eye side, showing the start of a horse race at Arapahoe … Continue reading The Inadvertent Adversary
IT WAS THE DAYS, for me, of Succession. Two of them, thirty-nine episodes. You can imagine the distress. Amanda, alas, could not. The last of us came in gradual, episodic spurts and then suddenly (or however that goes). I remember vividly my disgust at her suggestion that Tom Wambsgans would emerge as Waystar RoyCo’s next … Continue reading Islands, In The Stream
THE FIRST EIGHT HOURS were the best eight hours, when I still believed my lusty dreams would be fulfilled. Among the Amish, where I was born and raised, and up on Northstar, where I spent the better part two years, I’d marinated in high-octane fantasies of flesh and hair and spurting fluids, buttocks, breasts, and … Continue reading The Full Package