Meeting Someone Once for Five Seconds
Imagine a woman who has come to a cabin two days ago. Not everything is put away yet; there are boxes stacked along one wall, all of them still closed, four or five that have been marked Assorted, the ones that will frustrate her getting settled. There are other boxes she didn’t get to mark. […]
The Teardown
A week after their not-a-one-night-stand at her place, Ray invited Edie to his house. The house lived in the center of its own small forest behind a suburban industrial park. Edie stayed over, then simply stayed. Although, staying implies a passivity where in fact there was grasping intention to establish herself. She thought it was […]
Amazon Has Voodoo Dolls, But Not Reindeer
Voodoo dolls are often misunderstood. There’s potential to bring a person good luck and fortune, but this was not that moment. The last time I was in NOLA the heaviness of spirit seeped into the clothes I wore and never dried. I didn’t need the doll back then, so now I guess Amazon would have […]
THERAPY
From the porch, he heard the metal wind chimes tinkling on the Shepard’s hook, and the dull clanging of the shell chimes dangling from the back awning, and the baritone bamboos nailed to the lower limb of the elm tree. It was a windy day. The chimes reminded him of his wife, who’d hung them, […]
The bracelet
The stall in Spitalfields Market, London, sells silver jewellery, bracelets, necklaces and earrings. I edge closer to take a look. Beside me a woman of about 50 is talking to the stall owner, an older Indian man. The man’s right arm is poised mid-air as he holds up a rack of bracelets for her to […]
A Silent Marriage
Mr. and Mrs. Dalton were creatures of habit. Each morning, when the alarm clock trilled at 6:30 am, Mr. Dalton would descend to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, dark roast, with vanilla flavored cream on Saturdays as a treat. Meanwhile, Mrs. Dalton made the bed, pulling the white sheets tight and tucking […]
On Discovering My Poetry Causes Hysteria
A ceiling fan cuts the humid air. A decrepit bookstore; the musty aroma of hardbacks. I wait until ten minutes after the hour, to allow for stragglers. Tonight’s audience is equal parts silvery intellectuals and undergraduates in collegiate sweats. As I approach the lectern, a fly lands momentarily on my papers. My shoulders are tight […]
Whoever Gets Burnt from the Porridge, Blows on the Yogurt, Too
Just afore Lent, a crone popped her foul head through my cottage door. “I smell hunger,” she said. “I’m a recent widow with a young son.” “I smell birth.” “I’m with child.” She offered me a coarse wooden bowl. “It fills itself with porridge,” she said. Oh, the nonsense people come up with to plague […]