Dark.
Light.
The man blinks five times. Twice slowly with effort. Three times fast. His eyes are adjusting to the light of the room. There is no sunlight here. The sun has gone a long, long way from here. There is the smell of damp from the aged and tired wooden table to the side of me. The natural whiff of decay.
A drunk approaches a policeman and says his car has been stolen. The cop asks where the last place he saw the vehicle was. “Right here at the end of my key,” the drunk says, holding a ring of them up. “Okay,” says the cop, “but you might want to zip up your fly before we go looking for it.” “Damnit!” says the drunk, glancing downward, “they got my girl, too!” – ghost of Townes Van Zandt; Mission Beach, San Diego; 2000 A.D.
My ex-wife, who never bothered to legally become “ex,” let herself into my apartment with my extra key and slid into bed with me. She Continue reading Per Your Request By Tom Hoisington
Carl stopped dead when he reached the gate of the path that led to the large house. He struggled for a moment to remember why he was there but then his fingers touched on the cold leather of the tick book in his pocket. Carl took a deep breath in through his nose, blew it out his mouth and pushed through the gate.
So you’re out of breath when you swing open the trunk’s lid and you eyeball the space inside there and compare it to the dead hooker cooling ever so slightly at your feet.
Continue reading It Just Goes Downhill From Here By Ryan Sayles
The body lay in a heap, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Odd angles, twisted limbs: it sprawled inside the old barn doorway where the shadows were at their blackest. Jed wouldn’t have seen it himself if Gwen hadn’t screamed the place down.
He parked his truck in front of the Kum & Go in the shadow of the I-80 overpass. There was a station wagon in the lot. He waited. He stared through the signs on the window. Fresh Pizza? It’s Time! Two kids made the door chime as they walked out with oversized sodas. They got in the station wagon and the station wagon drove away.
It hurts! Continue reading Fall By Jason Duke
“Oh Jesus. God Almighty. Holy bloody Mary.”
“When did you come over so religious, Joseph?”
“Piss off, Mikey.”
“Calvin Kleins in a knot or what, boy?”
Continue reading The Archangel Michael And The Solitude Of Joseph By Katy O’Dowd
“Angelina”
Spoken in a whisper.
Whistling through the sorrow stained alleyways of my memories on the wings of drunken white doves.
That name.
That girl.
I kicked the guy in the balls. The shit that served for made guys these day in Jersery was fucking pitiful. I didn’t kill the dick : just let him slide down the highway. I saw him coming a mile away; knew they’d be after me soon as I left the Florida state lines for my daughter’s wedding.
Continue reading The Wedding Of His Daughter By T. Fox Dunham
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