I’ve never been in a tornado. But the landscapes of my childhood dreams were ravaged by them. Brought on by the trauma in my waking hours, my tornado dreams were prolific, and proved to be, prophetic. The first, an EF-1, to spin its massive cone into my dreams, did so...
Issue Twelve
The Truth or Something Like It
I met Joe Nuxhall a few weeks after my fifteenth birthday. His hands were gnarled, and he spoke as though his mouth was half full of marbles, but he was sharp and funny as hell. I was only a few months younger than he was when he made his Major League debut....
Woman Reclining
I study my frame in the mirror. I admire its slender lines, gilded edges and the ornate corners that curl and spiral in a decadent flourish. The frame is new. Tim said it was too expensive and there’s no guaranteed bonus this year with the way things are. Barbara...
Ethnic and Kosher
I lose him at the corner of Ethnic and Kosher. He trails behind me, distracted by a colorful display of artificial chrysanthemums and carnations, votive candles, and sugar skulls—a mock shrine honoring the dead, all while selling taco shells and salsa. “Mama, look!”...
Jump
The man didn’t try to put me at ease, by acting as if we were on a date as some of them did, inquiring as to which radio station I preferred, offering me a toke. His breath was foul and his double knit brown suit was a joke, no reason to be afraid. I told myself he’d...
Lithosphere
My phone screen reads: Magnitude 3.7. The shaking lasts only a few seconds. I’m an amateur seismologist as well as real estate expert, like any good Californian. Californians both old and new are preoccupied with the security of the ground and the space on that...
Blood Histories
At one point in history, there was a girl who saved herself from history. How pretty she was is not important. Which of her parents sent her out into the world—inconsequential. What does matter is that she did the opposite of what she had always wanted because what...
risperidone; Mantis religiosa; A Constant Reminder of Pain, His Likeness on Cloth
risperidone body flawed vessel groin heart tussle my mother dies blue eyes sunken yet gaze unbroken my mother dies hand a closed fist mind exposed wish my mother dies disembodied voices stand in for bad choices my mother dies dozen missed calls padded rooms white...
**Some Good Features (Amazon Review)
Came decently wrapped and on time. Impressed at first with some good features i.e. saucepan eyes, curls, bubbly burps. Teasable/coaxable/soft. Still looks fine though curls long gone. Disappoints over time. Used intensively without much success - unable to get across...
Monologue of a Boy Asking Suicide to Stop Playing Its Songs of Sorrow
don’t categorize it as aloneness solitude is me not wanting to enter me A deserted house I stop by, I linger, but never enter This It’s rather a room I’m inside already A cell Life-sentence Borders that open to hidden ways out the country Lonely is the world Without...