The Stump
I knew a man whose corpsewas dumped on his mother’s lawn.He played cards with the mob,lost so much cash he paid with his life. He was twenty, old enough to…
If You Ever See Me Drowning
(After the poems On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and Press a foot into this beach by Diane Seuss) If you ever see me drowning. . . It is because…
The Imposter
Mu “no,” “not,” “nothing,” “without,” “nothingness,” “is not,” “has not” Modern Chinese, Japanese, Korean MU HAD FINALLY grown weary of running from his sorrow. His entire life had been…
A Deal with the Devil
Sarah’s fridge was on an incline. The fractured tile in the kitchen slumped slightly to the gossamer kitchen wall. Each time she closed the fridge door, the glass measuring cups…
WTF is Gunplay? • Found Footage
WTF is Gunplay?No one listens to a word I say no matter what no one listens. Long ago a claybird exploded & that’s the best I’ve got aboutmy dad. The…
The Man with the Third Arm
The photograph of Rainy was taken in the fall of 1957, not long after she had turned three. It is in black and white, so the colors of her madras…
A Lesson in Violence
This was what the principal, Principal Warwick, said to us, to me and my wife, after we’d sat down across from him in his office at our daughter’s middle school.…
Bedside Manners
+++++++++++++++++++Eleanor clocks into Lawton Manor for her night shift. She rushes into her locker to find that her coworkers set out clear plastic cups of pink punch and a cake…
Id
“David!” That was my mother’s shout, rolling down the street. She stretched out the first syllable for 3 seconds, then chopped it off with an abrupt “id”. Not ego, not…
I’ve Seen Texas Twice in Person and Once on FaceTime, and I’m Good Now
I’m nine, and Texas is a John Ford epic.A toy store in Austin: gallon-sized LEGO buckets and mildewy Sorry! boards. Geckos scurry across water-stained ceiling tiles like tiny cowboys on…