Maricela had bird bones. Her father said, “Look at her go. She landed on the Johnson’s roof, up there by the wind sock.” And she was only three. Maricela’s mother had to make Maricela’s clothes by hand. She stepped out of all her shoes. On the up side, no one had to worry about kites […]
The artist painted a man with yellow hair. She woke up at night and a man with yellow hair was seated at the edge of the bed. He said, “Paint me a woman, a woman with yellow hair. I’m lonely.” The next day the artist began on a woman with yellow hair. The canvas progressed […]
Where are the wisdom givers now, the gurus? Is their absence just proof that they are so large or so few? The speaker addressed a sizable crowd, both young and old. He followed the rows up to the lights. He spoke: We know that in societies that do not change, the aged are venerated, because […]
There is an image that extends from another (and a problem may be that in all images images extend). A robber, for example, has just leapt into the path of a man and a woman on the sidewalk. The robber says, “Give us your money.” He’s with three of his criminal pals, boys all, who, […]
There is an image of a girl looking at a man from behind. The man stands in front of her, staring ahead. He wears sunglasses. Maybe that’s a scar or a shadow on his cheek. This image attracts. What is the woman’s expression? Maybe she’s watching his back with surprise. He’s just said something like, […]
They called Computer Leon. Soon, wire and card lawn signs went up saying “We called Computer Leon.” “If it weren’t for Computer Leon, I’d have nothing but a thousand dollar paper weight on my desk,” a man said. “Computer Leon’s a real pro. He had my PC up and running in little more than an […]
A young boy no more than ten woke to the dark with the need to pee. In this world, peeing at night was not so easy a thing. His mother and father slept in the room at the far end of the hall, the bathroom in between, two picture windows that looked out onto the […]
Assuming that we are all not machines in 2050: In the year 2050 Leon paid full amount and clicked the circular lock into his head and tapped okay for five minutes of diagnostic ability. The left lower leg had been paining him for weeks since he’d slipped and with normal thinking he was at a […]
Assuming two characters and the existence of a bag: (a) He told her that the bag had to get to Europe. He smiled. She smiled. Like those smiles before sex or at the end of a wedding or when you finally notice you have hands. (b) She took the bag, bearing imperceptible value onto the […]
Point was a point. He had no mass, thickness, or real measurement. He was, as the definition goes, a position in space and time. In the parlance of the day, Point or Max could be identified as existing at the intersection of two or more lines, vectors, or intentions, such as two people–one named Jane, […]
The step mother, known as the evil step mother, raised a piña colada into the brown tavern smoke. “Three cheers for the Champion and my treacherous step daughter,” she cried. Late evening sun crashed the windows white. But the frames were dark, like old burns in the surface of the wall, bruisings at the periphery […]
In their living room a row of tubes emerges from a space near the French doors. The tubes curve up like strange wine glasses or the necks of luminous ostriches, filled to the rim with water. Often a whale rises slowly and surfaces and squeaks or chirps at a person nearby in a rocker or […]
Once upon a time, a Champion crossed the desert, forded the river, climbed the mountain, and descended into the valley where a Princess, trapped by her evil step-mother, stood at a high open window. “I’m here to free you from yon tower,” the Champion called up. “You must first fight the Dragon and bring me […]
They said he was a strange volume, scariest in flight. “My god, you’re torturing this boarding ramp,” a large woman in a business suit said. The plane above Chicago struggled to climb. “What if I slip through the seat?” he asked Martha. “Must I always fear losing you, Thin as String?” she asked. “Escalators are […]
