fiction

America Encaustic

         Matt thought the air smelled something like Vietnam—it hung around his neck in thick, heavy ropes, choked with smoke and hot breath and what could’ve been gunpowder but was probably just firecrackers, he reminded himself. Ahead of him, Johnson snaked through the dancers, winding his body into the spaces

An Offering of fear

All the people of the village were gathered before the sacred column, awaiting the priest with fear and zealous awe. They stood in anxious silence, listening to the tattoo of the drums roll out from behind the pillar of smoke with steadily rising intensity. Men craned forward, eager to see

Body Rites

TW: BODY HORROR, SELF HARM, DEPICTIONS OF DEATH   Tuesday morning, an hour before I have to show up at work, I wake up in a coffin.      It’s dark. Not the claustrophobic kind, but the kind that expands my surroundings, swallows me, leaves me grasping at phantom shapes

Butterflies

The butterflies began to show, began to be remembered, just as you were disappearing from me. I imagine that you were somehow developing in my mind without me ever knowing it, until you were a whole thing without a face, but I could somehow see you. You, a tall man

The Pioneer

My Stonewall godmothers were probably rolling in their graves, but I kind of enjoyed being in the closet. I’ve been out since birth, and demanded a Snow White cake for my second birthday. I planned my wedding to Chad, our local lifeguard, at four. After that I had plenty of

NUISANCE

Nuisance was a dry wind, a summer’s mosquito hanging on for dear life. Nuisance was a plough loosening earth, a mosquito longing to fill full. Protein, water, ions, gases. Nuisance was life and wastes, another year’s calendar, an almanac forecasting violences. Nuisance was a clinging for life. Dear life: was

TURN UP THE LIGHT

The morning of the zoo break began uneventfully. Most exhibits had been fed and watered, and in the centaurs’ case, given their rainbow assortment of pills. The unicorns were napping, the pegasi too, and the sasquatch was attempting to groom itself. And yet, the zoo seemed uncharacteristically empty, for most

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