Stories
Fiction, Non-Fiction, Essays
View from the Side 20200123: Point of Order
Point of Order Here’s something you probably wouldn’t guess about me. When I was a kid my parents used to listen occasionally to a record they had, (you know, those things that spun around on a turntable) an LP (though it wasn’t really called that then, in the early...
The Habit of Hope
The Habit of Hope I am a creature of bad habits. When my last relationship ended I fell back into them joyfully, like an elephant falls into cool mud. Dishes piled in the sink, candy wrappers littered my desk, mounds of unopened business envelopes grew into mountains....
Salome (pt 7)
(Salome pt 1)(Salome pt 6) The city seems unchanged after these three years. People pass through it the way nutrients and elements pass through a body. At any given time the city is indistinguishable from its inhabitants. But people come and go, like cells flaking...
Salome (pt 6)
(Salome pt 1)(Salome pt 5) The next day began badly. We’d stayed up late, arguing about Noel, whether he was truly an artist, or just a tool of the city. Finally, making up without agreeing, we made love until, exhausted, we fell asleep on top of the covers. We both...
Salome (pt 5)
(Salome pt 1, Salome pt 4) We were so hurried then, now there is so much time. I walk the streets in the sunshine, through neighborhoods of low houses, to the beach. The bits of litter at my feet hold meaning for me. I find buttons, rings, broken necklaces. I read...
It Was A Good Idea
It Was a Good Idea It was a good idea. I still insist on that. And I truly had the best intentions. Again, I insist on that. At this point, I have refined the calculations to a degree that I can explain the runaway effect which surprised us all so badly. The...
Salome (pt. 4)
(Salome pt 1) (Salome pt 3) Perhaps the events of our lives are grouped in discreet units, as the physical particles are, inter-connected over a period of time, years, maybe, but with definite limits,...
Salome (pt. 3)
(Salome pt 1) (Salome pt 2) I’ve given up trying to maintain the niceties of casual encounters with strangers. I’m unconcerned with anyone’s reaction to my appearance or style of life. If someone meets my eye on the street, or in the halls of my apartment building, I...
Salome (pt. 2)
(Salome pt. 1) I’m not a man of my times. I wander aimlessly through the modern world, a little distance away from everything I pass. Machinery confuses me, the flash and dazzle of bright lights blinds. I turn in horror away from the video arcade. The flicker of oil...
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