When your new boyfriend says he’s The Joker and you’re Harley Quinn, this means there are rules you are expected to follow. A uniform is required. That means, a...
The worst thing about the world ending is that I can’t move that car off the front lawn. Bloody thing has been parked there for months. It must have been left b...
I would stop at gas stations along the way to buy postcards to mail back east to my friends. My first year away I was basically broke, getting by on 32 hours a ...
Days before the product launch, a rich, ego-driven technocrat is kidnapped, tortured, then killed by a cabal of rivals and international government forces. His ...
Free Speech Rally
I attended a Free Speech Rally today. The first speaker was meant to be good, although I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. There were a...
1.
My friend Andrew is a successful accountant. And a good person. In the sixth grade, he failed reading class. He received a form his parents were supposed to...
On the bright November day I gave away my dog, I watered every plant in the house. Even the artificial ones. The pots overflowed, leaving puddles where none had...
she woke up selfishly. as if cloistered by a hardened bowl, her mind thrashed, its soft edges driving into knots of yellowed ceramic. each hit a knot unto itsel...
The Santiago kid committed suicide that morning. Two men had to carry Santiago’s mother out to a car. Maria said when people got that sad their legs stopped wor...
I drop F bombs on the campaign trail when points don’t come through. Fucking deplore economic inequality in Dubuque, fucking deplore right-wing fundamentalism. ...
Come with me, he said. “Where do you want me to go?” I asked him. Everywhere, he said. “Everywhere?” I asked. Yes everywhere, stop repeating me, he said. “Oh ok...
With my round, smooth-bottomed hull, my wide-ribbed belly, I was made for love. We take turns, you and I, filling and being filled. You open a jar, lift a lid, ...
Ted Bundy would have loved Flat Stanley’s mom
her long straight dark hair parted in the middle. She would have been Midwestern helpful if he needed her to ca...
I had a best friend. Her name was Hannah.
Hannah and I met on the playground at the River City Public park. As the years went on, I got to know the quirks and ...
Back when there were people around, I would blow my moped through town, then ride on and dart between bales of alfalfa. Neighbors called me the crazy crazy daug...
Alcohol: It triggers my anxiety. I drink sencha. BYOB.
Apps: What I have is what I use. Notifications are off. I like to be present in the moment.
Bag...
Finding Freedom through Faith
After the assault, he started reading Bible verses. He tried to find answers within that would resolve the sickness of his mind. ...
I am who many people are: a person quite comfortable in their time zone, with a soul lodged inside of me somewhere, woven through my rib cage maybe if you want ...
Not forever anyway. Never forever.
The most repeated and perfect piece of advice given to parents of small children is “enjoy it while it lasts”.
The most...
Sitting alone with my back against the wall I watch people walk in and out of the little store, periodically checking my phone to see if it’s charged enough yet...
Maybe it’s my birthday. I feel a head taller, but still shorter than the rest. I take the train into the city, a sort of fist bumping, rebellious celebration, ...
“Just give it to me!” he impatiently barked, as though this were a surgical incision and not an artfully crafted sandwich, as though I could just close it up as...
I used to teach high school and my favorite student by far was Brody Philips. He was not particularly bright, but one day, the spring of his junior year, he cam...
I say “Abrogate,” and one of the twinjet engines explodes.
The passenger beside me, with whom I’d been discussing recent mutations in particularly virulent str...
A shop will be a spacecraft and the sales jargon will be aliens’ best attempt to understand and be understood and we’ll be traveling while we’re inside the shop...
I don’t want to be here when it starts to rain were the first words you stung me with. I led my fingers to my hair and you said we had time for a few drinks bef...
A woman wanders into the room, uncertain where she is or why, but a professional team of scriptwriters comes to her aid. The major networks cut to the full are...
The glass in the door of the milk refrigerator was heavier than he thought it would be when it shattered. One minute looking at the variously cartoon-like cows ...
