Cherries and cottonwoods,The beach head: rocks and sand-dusted crags,Poplars and dune scrub at the tree line.The crater I found you in, the sunken rockface crescent,The salmon granite, the chipping blocks,The setting sun behind the wall, your face in shadow.Twisted driftwood fingers, cracking seaweed.Scrambling down the bleached sandbank,Kicking up foam, into the wash,And us escaping the…
El chino
“I just want to get wasted tonight.” She cackled. “You know what I mean?” Her head cocked quickly to one side. The gentleman looked uncomfortable. His mouth started searching for a response. But before he even spoke: “But I need you to watch me tonight–” and her hand reached out to his shoulder; she caught…
Vices
(That I)Could give up all the vices that I choose,And hate, in that by choosing I’m possessed,I think that I would pick my love for you.I think that that would surely be the best. For smoking, while assaulting my weak chest,And reeking me with scent worse than a stove,At least gives idle hands a break…
The chronograph
Honey? Honey? Put on the chronograph, will you? Oh darling, not tonight. But why not Thomas? I’ve just picked up a new record. 1928. I got it on sale. Tom Pratt put a hand to his head. Darling, I like it just as much as you do. But every time we run that thing, the…
The failed writer
It was a good story, he said. It just wasn’t… a great story. All right, I said. It came out as more of a question than an affirmation. Well, let’s begin with the positive, shall we? In his English accent, Thompson’s ‘shall’ sounded even more pretensious. In my mind, I was choking on his English…
National Auto Bodies
“Hello. Is this Timothy Parker?” “Uh, yes. May I ask who’s calling?” “This is Jeremy Welks. I’m calling from National Auto Bodies.” “Is this a telemarketing call?” “No, no sir. Just a courtesy call. We supplied you with your last body.” “Yes, I remember.” “Well sir– first of all, how has that body been working…
The Day the Earth Stood Still
“Whata ya wanna know that for?” Old Nate Tirus booms. He thinks too hard, and his face scrunches up into something painful. “Well… jes’s,” he lays his head back in his easy chair, “that had to a been right during the War. First War,” he clarifies. Tipped up, the brim of his hat keeps the…
A hundred years and a day
He had just enough time to see the little explosion that flared from the barrel of Lawrence’s gun. He didn’t see the bullet, but he felt it pierce his right breast. Then he was falling head first down Black Gorge. *** The old man limped toward the noisy shack. The rowdy gamblers failed to notice…
Pigeon’s progress
One morning I awoke to find a pigeon strutting the sill of my open window. I had left the window propped up with a book the night before, and in the morning the air that blew into the stuffy tenement bedroom was cool, despite that it was summertime, and it was refreshing. The pigeon had…
The sinking of the Lusitania
It was going to be a hell of a hard sell to my parents, first Scotland, then Haiti, now this, but Rebecca and I had set our minds to having a brief, two-week Dutch vacation, and now that I could afford it, I was convinced of its happening. Originally, we had planned a pan-European vacation,…