Overhaul – Hall Jameson
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 13:36 — 0 Comments
There were kittens in the barn next-door, black and white and tiger-striped. Amber watched from the kitchen of Horace’s and Imogen’s house as their neighbor, Mr. Veazie, emerged from the barn with a lumpy burlap sack, the mother cat following close behind. He tossed the sack into the stream, adjusted his tie, straightened his hat, and kept walking towards Main Street. Amber sprinted to the water’s edge, ignoring Imogen slipper-shuffling towards her with a tray of oatmeal cookies. She splashed through the brown water, retrieved the sack, and dumped the kittens out. One lay completely still on the soggy bank, […]
Wrong Way – Kevin McLellan
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 14:06 — 4 Comments
The waitress came from behind the bar and placed the coffee before them. Two porcelain cups on a marble tabletop. She even brought tiny crystal cups of sugar and cream with silver spoons. It was all very nice. The woman looked at the man who sat with her over the coffee. Or, rather, she regarded him. He wasn’t bad looking. He was older than she was, but not so much that it would ever trouble her, if it came to that. And there were his good cheekbones, plus hands strong and athletic, but, she concluded, without final shaping or finish. […]
I’m Sorry – Sam Katz
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 13:57 — 0 Comments
They told us about you in an email addressed to the community. Three paragraphs signed by the president of the university that seemed incredibly honest at the time. I had to read your name twice. I’d just seen you a few weeks before and my mind kerfuffled over the arithmetic of these two ideas. When it had settled again, I admit, I wasn’t devastated. The feeling was akin to recognizing the passage of time: I thought I should get on doing something with my life. I didn’t know you very well so it was like finding out a distant relative […]
Reasons For Concern – John Cravens
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 13:30 — 2 Comments
The young American couple was staying for a week in this far northwest county of Ireland in a self-catering cottage that had a fine view of the lough. The young man had come to the pier to be alone and to think, and he had been watching the men fishing for mackerel since before the day had begun quickly fading to evening. Several small cars were parked near the end of the pier where there was no barrier, and men were in front of the cars fishing. Some fished from the edge of the pier facing the breakwater. Beyond the […]
Lady of the Waves – Jessica Karbowiak
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 14:26 — 2 Comments
On September 8, 1900 a fierce hurricane ripped through Galveston, Texas and killed more than 6,000 men, women and children. Among the dead were 90 children and 10 Catholic Sisters at the St. Mary’s Orphanage, despite the nuns’ efforts to save the children by securing them to their own bodies with clothesline. Only three boys and a hymn called “Queen of the Waves” survived from the orphan’s home. September 8, 1900 Early Morning/ St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum Lost children, orphans in walking quiet line, bookended by black-cloaked women of faith, up and into the dormitory. Single file as is the […]
The Decoy – Andrew Olson
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 14:25 — 0 Comments
They sat on their haunches in the wide, circling drive between the shed and the farmhouse; the soft plinks of beebees sounding as they loaded the cock action gun. Barn swallows sat perched above them on the powerline, conversing as the sun began to descend over the wheat fields, past the westernmost machinery barn. The brothers, overalled and barefoot, picked up the stray beebees that were now coated with a fine layer of dust from the drive in front of the barn. Isaac, the younger of the two, poured a few of the small objects into his palm and then, […]
An Unanswered Letter – Antoinette Constable
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 14:05 — 1 Comment
During the second winter of WWII, Madame Esmée Lorseignac wrapped in shawls in her unheated house, sat at her desk and composed a letter she posted the same day.
Hitcher – Jenny Xie
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 14:08 — 0 Comments
After three hours on I-5 North, Howard gave up on the radio. The announcer’s voice was pockmarked with static, and the songs were worn thin and mournful from overuse. He switched it off in the middle of an old rock song—Cat Stevens—and enjoyed the sudden silence. The road muttered warmly under the tires. The setting sun sent splinters of gold light across the windshield. Shifting in his seat, Howard watched the hand on the speedometer tremble towards eighty. If he kept it up, he could make it home to Lauren before ten. Hopefully she’d have left his dinner in the […]
Oils – T F Rhoden
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 9:47 — 1 Comment
No morning romp, no private onanism; no shared breakfast, no quick snack; no pot of coffee, no shot of espresso: the two hours or so before dawn had to be used for work, had to be used solely for painting. Sevek awoke because of despair. But he awoke quietly, disturbing neither Pranaya nor the child sleeping bodkin between her parents. His wife and daughter knew nothing of his desperation. They only had a vague sense of his plight, understood that he wanted to paint, but did not know the ultimate reason why. Pranaya’s head lay unpillowed.  She was as supine […]
In The Morning – Gwen Mullins
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 14:39 — 0 Comments
“Sometimes a woman just needs a good spanking,†Abby said, her back turned to James as she continued chopping onions, her eyes streaming. The stillness stretched as the words died in the air. Abby pushed vegetables into rows with her knife so that they formed a flag in colors of a country somewhere far from her: coins of carrots, clumps of corn cut fresh from the cob, okra sticky with white ooze, the onions.
The answer isn't poetry, but rather language
- Richard Kenney
