Streptomyces

by Ray Nayler

Originally published on December 1, 2012

The old man pauses in his walk to press the bloodbeat of his wrist among these low-slung homes which, for sixty years, have accreted powerboats and cinderblock retaining walls in honor of the human urge to alter. A rare rain hits the sidewalk, raising an aerosol to his sinuses of settled dust and streptomyces, tugging [...]

A Fat Girl in Paris

by Ray Nayler

Originally published on December 1, 2012

Though the room did not answer to the pictures on the internet breakfast was very much what she’d imagined: that is – croissant and coffee, the reading of her guidebook in a thin white morning light. She, alone. A fat girl in Paris, with museum pass, tourist metro card, money saved up from a year [...]

Custer Shoots His Horse

by Ray Nayler

Originally published on November 1, 2012

Custer Shoots his Horse*   Here is General Custer: A figure on foot against the wild grass of the plains. Gory with horse brains, walking miles from the corpse of his mount, through whose head he himself fired the accidental bullet, after breaking ranks to chase a horizon of buffalo.   His canary moustaches are [...]