“There are Sweetmeats which rot the eater; in man’s nostrils Poison’d perfumes.” -John Webster 1 It was an early July evening, a Friday, about twilight, a Texas night, where the stars look so close you want to pluck them like lilacs from the black …
I don’t look in telescopes because what if I see something I’m not supposed to, like a UFO or a black hole or an incoming comet? I couldn’t enjoy the stars. I’d be too afraid look around because something could be out there ready to …
Mr. Cornelius Otter sat drinking beer with Mr. Wallace Beaver inside the River Bank Tavern. Otter lit a cigarette and shook his head. “Man,” he said to his friend. “I wish I had what you had.” “What, teeth that don’t stop growing?” Beaver shoveled …
Earlier in the fall, the white guy in maintenance with a lazy eye did me a good turn. On a Saturday morning, he knocked on my door on a routine inspection to see if everyone’s heat was working now that the boilers were on. He …
It was 3 o’clock, and the Store had lapsed into its familiar afternoon lull. Sarah sat behind the counter with an uncapped fountain pen in her hand. She touched the notepad with the pen tip and watched a generous ink spot bloom on the white …
Uneven asphalt was pinched against the baggy, dirty clothes of a bowling champion washout named Anton. Opening up his heavy eyes, Anton felt slightly disoriented as he saw the dark, filthy ground adjacently touching his face. He tried to quickly sit up, disgusted with the …
“My whole life was a series of fade-ins and fade-outs…” Stephen Vizinczey, In Praise of Older Women, 1966 The first time I saw Julie, she was walking onto the elevator at the gym in the financial district. We were both going up. Leaning back …
She catches me among the Penguins and the Puffins. A nondescript lady in a black jacket, a long black skirt, and a small black straw Panama hat. She stands uncomfortably close to me as I scan the discount tables. Her glasses have thick dark frames …
This was his first time going to a shopping center with just Dad. Even though the shopping center was near their home, Mam never went here. Dad said this place was good enough. It was dark, and the car park was nearly empty. The boy …
As the sun burns away the morning fog, scarred remnants of rusted keels, bleached whale ribcages, and human skulls come into focus. For centuries merciless Atlantic currents have smashed sails, masts, gunwales, and rudders against treacherous shoreline rocks. Shipwrecked European explorers, seduced by the lure …