He called a week before Christmas break to tell me the name of a cat, a new wife, and to ask whether I remembered him, and I said I did. “I remember when we flew those paper airplanes at school. Fourth grade, fifth? But I don’t remember anything after that.” “That’s because I moved away, […]
The Marigolds had to be raised like any animal on the planet born without the ability to walk, build, and feed themselves. We watched them in our dullness surmount the edges like wild moulds, fold over the rim, and crash the suburbs like geese. They had us over for dinner once and the kids played […]
His Parts can be found at 365 Tomorrows.
One day he tired of food, desisted eating. He sipped dew. He grew dim. Soon, his mate puffed him into a breeze. She said, “Yellow Augusts. Maybe that’s one promise you can keep.”
We took our dog to that always empty place outside of town and unclipped his leash. Our father said, “Go on.” At an old, broken fence (we never understood what the fence had ever enclosed–“Pasture, maybe, or some settler’s yard,” our mother guessed), our dog stopped and looked back at us with an expression too […]
Marisela had bird bones. She had a dream about rising above what trees there were, rising still, and breaking through a thin rind in the clouds. She woke up weeping. Her father ran out of the house and pointed to the roof. “Maricela, you’ll fall.” “It’s the light above the clouds that woke me up,” […]
A woman sits alone in the old library. This old library creaks and when the wind blows readers swear the walls respond with sway, what readers there are. Few readers attend the library so it also echoes. The door closes behind the woman. Her movements step down the main hall which grows small the longer […]
One day, Juan’s car ignored the key and the ignition. Inside the compartment, Juan examined nothing he recognized aside from the battery and a reservoir filled with blue liquid. He chewed at the inside of his cheek then closed the hood. The children were playing in the yard. The youngest, Juan’s girl, kicked a ball […]
“Oh, you’re from Montana,” he said. “Arkansas. My mistake . . . “Yes, from Texas . . . “Hot yes, but the space here is more than what you need. Of course, we should always take advantage . . . “No, I never saw one but you could hear them at night in the desert; […]
Heading out of town they saw zombies dancing about the foot of a barn aflame. They saw at sun up a truck with a shark in the bed being parked at the lab. That was when the traffic got thick and they could see much nearer and in greater detail and suddenly they sensed that […]
See your hands. You notice a black spider on the knuckle of the left-hand middle finger. They’re your hands and now a spider. These wrinkles and those grains under the nails from the garden. Your hands. They appear to you suddenly with the somatic lucidity of a sting. Thick hands. You’d trapped one in a […]
And they gave each other bits. Ted pointed a hot dog and said, “You will be annihilated.” Juan answered, “You, you will be destroyed.” “No, no,” said Ted. “You, you will be annihilated. You are not of the body.” Juan raised a french fry and said, “You will be obliterated. You are not of the […]
Jimmy had Ferengi teeth. The neighbor complained to his parents that Jimmy had bitten his shepherd on the leg. “He climbed the fence and took old Charger’s leg into his mouth and bit the poor fellow. I couldn’t believe it. And with those deadly Ferengi teeth he has.” “It’s unnatural,” Jimmy’s mother told Jimmy. “No […]
The biologist open a shark’s stomach and the first thing out was a small, longhaired man, who said, “Where’s my hat?” He had a hard time finding his footing because of the digestive solution that covered him. Next out came a writhing consistency of bats that soon encrusted the tops of the lab cabinets with […]
The boy announced, “I’m going to run away.” Dinner at the Franks, chicken, salad, and white beans on the black table, a round of white plates. “You’re going to run away?” Father asked. The boy tapped at the edge of his plate with a knife. Mother took a sip of her drink. “Please don’t do […]
