“This is how Rome fell,” I say to Kirat. “How do you mean?” “Wasn’t there a siege or something? The Goths surrounded the city, which was ...
Category Writing – Fiction
The Dying Off
It was like this. In the early days, if you had paid attention, you would have noticed the things left undone. Driving down the highway, the sign ...
Breaktown
Bennie Lou fumbled for her tape recorder when the melee broke out at the school board meeting. Raymond Canckle punched the Reverend Walter ...
13 Fragments
It was like this: I put on the dress he had bought me, the one I hated but he loved. A navy shirt dress and embroidered belt from Talbott’s. Very ...
Just one word
Iris stepped away from Cooper, disciplining herself. She would not give in to swooning so soon. Already on her fourth beer, she knew she was ...
The Long Backward Glance
Martha walked through the woods alone, strayed off the dirt path, and stopped at the base of a wide sycamore tree. She placed her right hand ...
Tenderfoot
The commuters side-stepped his outstretched legs, the purple socks in ratty slippers, the grease-stained pants from Goodwill. He stopped ...
A Microstory: When Metaphors Fail
Menoetius tossed the book on the ground. “Rubbish.” “I know, right?” said Atlas, his brother. “You’re not carrying the earth. You’re carrying the ...
Blizzard, 1978
Banford Mickley had not seen a pair of tail lights for ten miles, and now he was unsure of anything in front of him. Like walking down the aisle ...
When I Wake
When I wake, I see nothing but white in front of me. Maybe this is heaven. Then I remember I am in the plane, a lumbering C-47 outfitted with ...
My Familiars
My familiars — cat, fox, owl — sat around a dining room table, drinking whiskey and lamenting my waywardness. The cat especially was a sloppy ...
Allons-y
I am larger, better than I thought, I did not know I held so much goodness.1 I am waiting for Walt Whitman to arrive. He is slow on the open ...