Category Archives: Writing

Sepsis

I went to sleep last night in a different country. I awoke this morning in this one. This country, in which wolves are hunted for their feet; chopped off and hung from belts as talismans to fend against demonic marauders. … Continue reading

Posted in Absurdist Fantasy, Fantasy, Fiction, Writing | 2 Comments

Seeing Smoke

Elvin Sharp awoke with a start. His eyes sprang open to reveal ribbons of soft blue and white light billowing from beneath the motel door. The swirling strips of light confused him. Light doesn’t curl like that, does it? Of course not. … Continue reading

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Photograph

The boy I was, looking earnestly into the camera, could not have known his passion would melt, after a thousand defeats, into painful indifference. That hopeful lad, barely in his twenties, knew nothing of failure. He believed intellect could take him … Continue reading

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The Person You Have Been

Boy, could I tell you some stories! You probably wouldn’t believe them, even though they’re all true. See, when you’ve lived a life as crazy as mine, people think the stories you tell are pure fiction. Nobody believes me when I … Continue reading

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A Bit of Background

Whisper. Tell the story, but tell it at such low volume that the audience must strain to hear it. Tell it like the truth can’t bear loud noise. There, now you know the predicament I’m in. Truth dare not speak … Continue reading

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Malaise

My waning interest in writing troubles me. Or, perhaps, it’s my willingness to invest my fingers in fiction that’s atrophied in recent weeks. I want not to write, but to have written. I think Dorothy Parker wrote something like that. I … Continue reading

Posted in Philosophy, Writing | 1 Comment

Beneath the Daylight Streets

When I lived in Chicago, the fact that Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive—both main streets in the thriving downtown/loop area—had multiple levels fascinated me. The pedestrian stairway entrances descending to those streets were my introductions to multi-level streets in the … Continue reading

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All the Secrets

I was up by four again this morning. There’s something about four in the morning, isn’t there? Something about that hour calls me out of bed and tells me to reveal what’s on my mind. And I do. This morning, … Continue reading

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Her Father’s Demons

“They’re stunted little men who live in those hills,” he said, pointing to the houses across the street. “They’re tiny, like elves, but these bastards have sharp teeth. And their claws! Goddamn, they’re monstrous beasts!” Calista Glazier winced as she listened to … Continue reading

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She Didn’t Even Know

She didn’t even know she kissed him. She didn’t realize her smiles—and the way she shrugged and laughed—were kisses just as surely as if their mouths met. Each breath she took, every turn of her head to look in his direction, each protracted slow-motion glance was a disclosure of desire. His. And … Continue reading

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Three Perspectives

Have you ever been stood up for a date that wasn’t yet scheduled? A suggestion of “let’s plan to get together,” followed by protracted silence? Yeah, if you look carefully at the precursor conversations and conduct an honest assessment of the situation, … Continue reading

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Affront

“It was as if I saw it happen in slow m-m-m-motion.” Recuerda Villa, her eyes wide, recalled what she had witnessed. What she had seen, though Recuerda wasn’t close enough to see it quite so clearly, was this. Jolene’s right arm, hanging motionless at her … Continue reading

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That Little Piece of Serenity

That little piece of serenity you think you hide from view in the privacy of your own brain, that little kingdom over which you believe only you hold everlasting dominion, broadcasts through your eyes, its secret spilling into the air, … Continue reading

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Devian

Four in the morning is the time of day when one is free to think unthinkable thoughts. It is a time of day at which sadness and loathing intersect with fear and rage. Depression and a multitude of other forms of … Continue reading

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A Lock I Must Crack on My Own

I spent two or three hours last night, glued to the television set, watching programs about cooking, eating, and smoking food. It’s rare that I spend that much time in front of the television, but last night I was in … Continue reading

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Losing Morfar

Once upon a time, an old Norwegian fisherman took his granddaughter out in his fishing boat. His boat was not the pleasure craft one sees so often today among men who call themselves fisherman. Rather, it was an old workhorse of … Continue reading

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Struggle Against the Wind

I struggle against the wind on the desolate beach, wet sand caressing my feet, as slivers of broken silica, progeny of crystalline boulders a million years old, compete with water and seashells for their place on the planet, offering my bare toes … Continue reading

Posted in Poetry, Writing | 2 Comments

Interlude

The hours before dawn—the predawn darkness when the remainder of the world sleeps while I enjoy my solitude—offers a time to reflect in the absence of urgency. Nothing requires my attention at just after four in the morning. Nothing is in desperate … Continue reading

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I Watch Her

I watch her, as she sits on a comfortable spot near the ocean. I see her eyes scan the horizon. She seeks answers in the waves and the clouds. She peers intently into the distance, striving to bring the answers … Continue reading

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Stegner’s Letter to His Lost Lover

If you could see inside my brain, if you could see the images of you that reside there, coming into sharp focus several times a day, you might know. You might understand how much you still mean to me, even after all … Continue reading

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Reflections

I scan the dark horizon for signs of morning. But the low-hanging clouds, pulsing against a backdrop of distant lightning, reveal mourning instead, solemn displays of contrition too late in coming to a night too painful to remember, yet too fresh … Continue reading

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In the Moment

Agostino, struggling to escape  a frenzied nightmare, awoke to a choking swirl of thick brown and beige dust. His wife, Bernardina, lay motionless beside him in the bed, the upper quarter of her body beneath a slab of broken stone. Stone … Continue reading

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Deviant Vignette

Death came unexpectedly at 4:34 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24. Milford Grey Oberweis napped on his leather loveseat, as was his practice, on that day. He expected to greet Julia Smithers at 6:30 p.m. for dinner but, instead, he died … Continue reading

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Dove, as in Soap

When he looked in her eyes, he gazed into the soul of a sorceress, a woman so practiced in witchcraft that she made him believe a woman like her could love someone like him. Of course, he later came to understand, that was impossible. … Continue reading

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Practical Sorcery

Meniscus Plevens rolled his eyes. His sister, Cleopatricia, shot a dark, menacing glance in his direction, a glare hot enough to melt the bacon-grease-saturated smile off his face. Every time she started to tell the story about her conversation with President Roosevelt, Meniscus rolled … Continue reading

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