Father Kaveatz stood at the window of his rectory bedroom, staring out across the yard through his weathered Galilean binoculars. He smiled knowingly at the cloud of dirt far in the distance.
“They’ll be men yet,” he sighed, elbowing me in the ribs. I shook my head, but couldn’t hold back a smirk.
“A little bit of [...]

Cast iron confident little soldiers in white polo shirts and grey slacks stomped across a grassy pasture. The football marched back and forth in a cloud of mud and soot. Traffic sped by the chicken wire fence. Honks and screeching brakes nullified the shouts out far beyond the bounds of supervision.
James clothesline-tackled Craig, catching his [...]

“Now, Jesus Christ is my personal God and Savior, but there’s something strange going on with the weather.”
He stood against the brick, outer wall of the walk-in clinic, wearing foakley sunglasses and a sporty polo shirt tucked into bright red basketball shorts. The accompanying red and white sneakers completed his “am I an assistant high [...]

“John McCain is a piece of shit.”
Bill nodded his head slowly, looking down with solemn concentration. Blue and red chips were spread across his Disabled Veteran’s Lodge Super Bingo Board. He laid down a red piece and turned his eyes to Darryl.
“I used to sit around after school and watch tv — man… those commercials [...]

Out on the late fringes of Spring, Hoosiers keep a low profile. No basketball, no soccer — only a  warming groundhog’s snowball could effect the slow pulse of May in Bloomington, Indiana. On Reclamation Sunday, our tiny, liberal, mid-western oasis breathes a sigh of relief. Student exodus turns down the volume; bike lanes reappear; adolescent [...]

The sun lowered slowly behind a row of ten dark-clad figures. Their downcast eyes looked up occasionally to meet the beady, yellow glance of alligators skimming the surface of the lake. A car door slammed and high heels clopped across the wooden bridge. Tiny flecks of twilight leapt off the black water and flickered in [...]

When Mitt Romney defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election, the United States of America paused. Open mouths dropped into laps. On that day, every citizen was alone. Baffled by the sound of one voice from the television set, they stared straight ahead — changing the channel, hoping to switch to another dream, even another [...]

Colton grabbed his tattered green rain jacket from the floor and slung it over his shoulders. The zipper went off track and ripped straight up to his neck leaving him in what looked like nightclub maternity wear. Sighing resignedly, he headed down the hallway, past the copier, water cooler, and out the door into [...]

He didn’t own a whistle. He didn’t wear a hat. He sloped along staring into the hazy blue sky in his striped oxford shirts, khaki slacks, and brown hiking boots. His long arm cradled a clipboard — a token to coaching conformity. He spoke to his young runners in pleasant, even tones — one-by-one — [...]

The Constelluchi brothers founded CStine Inc., shortly after graduation. The triplets all earned their Bachelors of Information Science and shared aspirations in the blossoming field of Nanotechnology. Their work quickly garnered much respect within inner circles. The up-and-coming tech giant Biosplat paid the brothers two million dollars to pursue their NanoMesh patent — a light-weight [...]

An empty three-year old, three bedroom sits in a breezy, dirt hill neighborhood. Furniture indentations and lightly scuffed walls cling to optimistic times — fading. A new coat of paint, fresh potpourri, and freshly baked cookies inject a shot of warmth. Dumpsters and dozers whine just outside — whispering the promises of tomorrow through echoes [...]

See a child. Water swept up my nose: a flip under waves or submerging too quickly. Pain and tears for pollen, dust, dander: fodder for weeping sinuses. Admire my cranial bulge. It fills to the brim between the eye sockets. I float from room to room, scattering tissues. Over the counter and into the living [...]

A whimsical unitard-clad gnome sits nestled at the very center of Earth. He strokes his technicolor beard — his only job. He does not wonder why. Why not? Micro-Geothermal wave thoughtslettes emanate from his creased forehead. Toasty broad spectrum nurtures while thirsty vibrations torture — towing the infinite loop. The gnome pilot stares unblinking straight [...]

I’m strolling on the pier with the gulls overhead swooping endlessly and a shadowy bulge emerges from the tide below — massive whale on the land — it lurches forward on flipper legs, bellowing through its slimy sword teeth. People scream hoarsely; they run, but I’m just standing. There’s something reassuring about this sluggish beast; [...]

I’m heading up a paved mountainside; it’s nearly straight-up and insanely, there is a dotted yellow line painted down the middle. My dashing steed is a white 1994 Dodge Neon. I’m halfway up and the engine is whining; it’s starting to sputter — gasping for relief. That beast of a hill takes over — can’t [...]

Jesse Durabill lived in the basement. Inaccurate? Perhaps. Six-thousand W. Rambling Rd was hardly a residence at all. In fact, his only neighbors thought they were all alone.
Just a door in the floor — heavy and wooden with iron handles — it laid nearly flat 50 meters from the road. Tumbleweeds loped across the dusty [...]

“Why are you interested in saving daylight?”
Gruff whispers scattered around the chamber. Long slender microphones rattled. Crotchety confusion gripped the room and bright fluorescent lights shone down atop slicked back hairplugs.
Stan squinted into the intense glare. His neck began to sweat, trickling further down all the way to the basin of his back. A pulse [...]

“Uh, yes. I’ll have the Bottomless Brickpasta, thanks.”
“How would you like that cooked, sir?”
“…”
“Rare, medium, well?”
“Well…?”
“Excellent. I’ll take your menus and can I start anyone off with an appeteazer?”
{From the right} “Why don’t we start off with a brisketcase and insulintinis all around?” {Nods around the table}
“Alrighty, I’ll have all that out to you shortly.” [...]

We filed into the fat, flying freightfurter carrying our comforts — pensive and bubbly. I snuggled into my seat with my hands pressed tightly atop my opinion-filled drab messenger bag. Squinting out the window, I watched the hand signals and luggage carts — anything to calm the anxiety.
I didn’t have to fidget long. The crunching [...]

We crept eagerly through a narrow graffiti enriched breezeway: back entrances to shops I pass every day, but never enter — they were top lit most exotically and I almost wished to stop. Across the street, we entered a mostly empty bar. The regulars dead-eyed us with annoyance tinged by curiosity. They turned from their [...]

It had been a long summer.
I was scrounging about — looking for money as usual. We needed it. Somehow, three part-time jobs never quite add up to a full job. Go figure. Days clung like the last drop of mayo in the round plastic serated crevice of an industrial sized can. Just like that barely [...]

After Dianne Sawyer’s heartfelt Earth Day special, the United States really stepped up to the plate. With Disney on the bandwagon, the cause just couldn’t fail. Mickey Mouse ditched his tired red polyester daisy dukes for a pair of hemptastic knickers. Pluto switched from bargain biscuits to Greenies. The ABC anchors moved from rain forest [...]

Son snurgles steadily on my chest
Engine roars next door
And wide blue eyes appear
Clank, slam; tires squeal
It happens this way in the night
Hush, I say
Smelling, snuggling closer
His azure eyes glaze over
Beautiful lips lay open
On cherub rosy cheeks relaxed
Steady, he’ll sleep on through
As long as we’re near
And I think
I’m alright too

The cold metal signs weighed 50 lbs a piece. It was the mad scramble to get them out in perfectly measured insane increments that put us in a pinch. We needed to get inside before they showed up to disrobe. Sally and Jed Winger’s space was not close enough to leave their fur coats [...]

Kale and George grew up together. Neighbors, they ran down the street to catch the ice cream truck; flew kites on windy days; took swimming lessons at the Y. They both knew that girls would always be yucky. There wouldn’t come a time when they asked them to dance — not without some prodding, teasing…swirlies.
A [...]

I stood alone in front of the ivory casket. Red, white, and blue streamers expansed most of its blinding outer whiteness. She was propped high — too high for my taste — out of the cavernous, hollow mouth of it. She was fresh… as though her last breath had just billowed and if it [...]

I roll the dice each morning. Sometimes, I set the alarm, but can’t be bothered to remember forever. It’s not that I don’t care. Occasional nihilism shield. — one step over that line and…
Singular obsessions fluctuate, but the by-product remains static. Exposure to the teeming infinitesimal produces acute awareness — a crackling conduit for chaos: [...]

“I’m not going to get this job, am I?”
“I’m afraid not,” she said as she nervously adjusted her KB Toys name tag. Her eyes fidgeted in their sockets as though physically wrestling with the presence of a deranged killer.
I wiped the drool from my mouth and sleeve. How did I get here?
Sitting in class, I [...]

Sleeping until Noon — waking, we ate Life cereal and stretched out on the carpet. Mr. Rogers advised us to play a game of make believe and we would. “Don’t ride your rubber ducky down the stairs.” And we did.
We would run out of the house in tiny bright shorts — screaming banshee wails, headed [...]

Bloody, oily
Guessing, judging, killing, singing
White Jesus Tank Into Kuwait
Again

Board up the silent house
Black cats chase all in a row
Sameface strangers shift gone
A sack of cans, a bag of bottles
Threadbare thong lies resolute
breezing in the sandweeds
Sirens scream by sadness
measured by cold benches…newspapers
Shards on the sidewalk, dog snarl chain
Yellowed eyes at the peephole
needle shoddy vein
Where the decorations stop
you’ll see nary a cop
Salvage soldiers nightwatch dark
Morningrise [...]

It all started with an accident. Depending on the perspective, one might call it “the incident”. Regardless, when Michael Rogers suffered a spinal cord injury ending in paralysis — caused by what lawyers would call a “faulty helmet” — nobody was playing football anymore. Let’s say it wasn’t “cost effective” or “wise”. But, we [...]

“That’ll be 69 cents, sir.”
His hair was in his eyes — it swayed back and forth as he searched his pockets for change. He patted each pocket several times, then repeated. He rifled through his wallet — dropping several customer membership cards at his feet. The line slowly grew behind him, but felt no sympathy [...]

Dear Mr. Tark,
I received your appeal regarding your recent ejection from a soccer match. While we at RecSports strive to preserve the free spirit of recreational athletics, our policy clearly states that you must meet in person with the Assistant to the Director of RecSports and deliver a verbal apology for your transgression. Until then, [...]

Bee had known, even as she finally gave in, that she would regret her
decision to join the school Cross Country team. She’d never liked
running. Though she was now almost on par with the average eighth
grader, it hadn’t always been that way.
As a kindergartner, the first time she’d run around that quarter-mile
track, she had [...]

He told stories; nobody listened. His hair already gray. He wore tidy English corduroys.
He skipped in the park, made obtuse remarks.
You punched him. Ouch.

Sally and Billy Whitebread hung their heads.
“But, Rummy is my Godfather!” whined Billy.
“Who will teach those extremists a lesson?” wondered Sally.
“I dunno.” he moped. “I can’t believe they are so convinced about their religion that they bomb us over there. What did we good Christians ever do to them?”
TELEVISION PLAYING IN BACKGROUND
A guided missile took [...]

Woke up in a giant vacuum.
The machine hum between my ears was unbearable. Darkness lurked all around. Through the auditory debris, I could hear things breaking…things falling. Small animals — somehwere — were scurrying.
A small beam of dusty light shot through a crack in what must have been a window. I scrambled to my supposed [...]

I’d taken the lowest garbage fare I could find. Local airports aren’t cheap. They squeezed me into the way-back — the row of seats behind beverage station. Front-row seat for the mile-high club…
I couldn’t take my eyes off the young woman hobbling her skirt back down. That is, until the plane shifted. It wasn’t like [...]