The bartender nods at the horse and waves him over to his reserved spot, corner booth. Men are milling about, but the horse only has eyes for the boy on stage on stage rasping song after smoky song into the air above their heads. … Continue Reading
He enjoyed scrubbing the urinals, the stretch in his wrist tendons, and the soreness that built up in his fingertips. It gave him time to absorb all the rumors he overheard from the lapping tongues that surrounded him. He imagined them running up his arms and legs, down the neck of his shirt as he plopped in a new urinal cake.… Continue Reading
Eight years Morgan and his wife Nancy had not been intimate, avoiding even the most incidental physical contact. Then, on the 27th of March at 9 PM, Morgan found himself in hand restraints, his back pinned against the bars of his four-poster, gasping for air with Nancy’s right breast sealing both his nostrils.… Continue Reading
In the backyard of his brand-new, post-divorce tiny house, David Cale is stuck up to his armpits in a compost barrel. Is it possible, he wonders, for a human body to decompose while still alive?… Continue Reading
I grew up in a world where it didn’t matter what you did for a job: grave digger, grocery clerk, tire repair, it only mattered that you showed up. Jim Rice showed up.… Continue Reading
Grandpa died on Monday. I loved him. At his funeral, I should have cried but I felt like laughing.… Continue Reading
Tricky bastard. You felt so real and nourishing. I felt special for breathing you. You whipped up blast of glossy plastic, hair polish and synthetic serotonin, you’re eating me from the inside! Eventually I won’t be more than a bag of bones cased in smooth skin and designer clothes. Only my dick and vocal chords will work. Halfheartedly at that.… Continue Reading
Braxton & Hicks never played Vaudeville for laughs. There was no curtain to this bloody show. We, the husbands, sat in the boardroom and waited for mothers to pee.… Continue Reading
There’s a circle of light in the middle of an otherwise completely dark room. Well, it’s not exactly in the middle, but close enough that it would take a laser’s precise measurement to show that it’s not exactly centered in the room. So let’s just say it’s in the middle and move on.… Continue Reading
A child will emerge from an alley as dark as a cocoon, where the air will carry a baby mobile’s tune. She’ll toddle over in a baptismal dress stitched with lace, with a satin bow wrapped around her waist. She’ll tap her toes in leather Mary Janes and say, Mommy! Her voice will ripple like the cries that rise every night on repeat.… Continue Reading