When I realized the thing might be chasing me, I ducked into a small courtyard. The light was dim. A sticky smell sweetened the air. It wasn’t long before it rolled right by without paying me any attention. Yep, exactly. But it wasn’t just any donut. I mean, yes and no. Your basic chocolate glazed, …
The vultures on the riverbank pay me no mind. I’m mobile flesh and my height barely equals their wingspan. Neither treat nor threat, I don’t deserve their attention. Vultures are carrion eaters, feasting upon carcasses that litter the land. They like their meals dead, slightly tenderized, and ideally herbivorous. These vultures are gathered on the …
Continue reading “A Blood of Bottles” By Deborah-Zenha Adams
Smitty runs a small operation. Not quite a commercial fishing boat like some of the others based along the dock that go out for days at a time. It’d been him and Old Charlie for the longest time. But Old Charlie’s rheumatism had gotten really bad and he’s known in town as a pretty miserable …
thwarted by typhoons & no ferryto Aka Island till maybe tomorrowwe rent a car & driveto the Former JapaneseNavy UndergroundHeadquarters — Okinawa meansrope over the sea — hacked deep in the hill in ’44 by soldierswith pickaxes & hoes & ropebaskets for haulingthe dirt to the surface,450 meters & notoilets & now here comes the Typhoon of …
Continue reading “taken to private areas & harmed” By Jason Emde
In my silent meditation, hushed words quiver and mutter, begging for release; to be unleashed from their confines —rattling their chains in a crescendothat cannot be left unforeseen or unheard. I bend my head to these words. The trees prostrate themselves before the figure that is formed. The date is chewed and shared with the …
“You know if we stare up at the sky too long we’ll float away, right?” “Shut up, Ryan.” “No, really. My Uncle John told me that. He said if you lay on your back and look up at the sky — but it has to be a really clear blue sky with, like, hardly any …
When you bow down, bow low so that your fore-head touches the ground. Then the emperoror president is pleased. This is the wayto fool the fool so he won't ask for more. Should Caesar linger long enough, try kneeling.This might convince him, if he's at all feeling,that he owes you. And he may knight you, …
She had the look of a Playmobil in her features,walked with hot-coal feet, smiled as if sheknew the world was going to end tomorrow. At break she smoked by the doorway, puffedthe ink out of a Biro, made paper aeroplanesfrom her wages and threw them onto the street. She tied her hair in a bobble, …
You see it again as glass, the daylight's shifting alliances each view a mild dissection slivered in shadow how quickly the silver eye absorbs every flaw or sideways glance you search the raw sea for approval, water holding its breath, in darkness your skingreen eyes gray clouds lost in shadow what will you find, seeking shelter beneath——— this bending surface? A slight breeze the curtain shifts — you float through light, the image skews. Now beige, now pink. I …
Continue reading “Mirrors: A Conversation” By Allison Goldstein
Remember me? I remember you. We met at the Atlanta airport on the night of December 18th. Neither one of us had any place to go. Both of us had nothing but time. You sat on a circular cushion separated by too much distance from the other people. I needed a place to sit. Upon …
Burnt Pine 