Release of a blissful kiss

Silky sweet sleep

Lupine moon

Glossy light laced with midnight dew

An illumination of you

Solitary within

Wary shadow

In your death daze

A soul haze thin and amber eyed

Bitterness drips

Stinging nettle against your dark lips

The carapace cracked

The final act

Displays the vestige

Abandoned

Victimized

Despicable

Despised

By skeletal whispers of your past transgressions

Your… Continue

If I could fly

Ascendent circling thermals

Spattered ash on God's blue palette

Perhaps you'd shudder

As my shadow passes

Spectred tingles scurrying beneath your skin

Like mice before the combine

My soaring sight unfocused on the chaff

Or the burning curve of the earth

I'm only fashioned for the passing

Gliding in on the last breath

Life ebbs

And I'm scrabbling for sustenance

In the… Continue

Closing Next Month

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest

Postmark Deadline: March 31

Now in its 17th year. Prizes of $2,000, $1,000, $500 and $250 will be awarded, plus five High Distinction awards of $200 each and six Most Highly Commended Awards of $100 each. Submit any type of short story, essay or other work of prose, up to 5,000 words. You may submit work that has been published or won prizes elsewhere, as long as you… Continue

The Last Circle of Knowledge: Mystery of the Sutterson Family



10 years earlier



Knowledge had meant death, especially for Dr. Falken. The Library was a circular crescendo spiraling downwards in a staircase formation. There were nine circles total. He had regretted pulling from the shelf that last manuscript of the Sutterson family, but he could not help but succumb to the desire of the burning knowledge that flamed within him as he pulled each one from the remaining circles… Continue

Nobody Know Who, Nobody Know What?



Stanley abruptly awakened to the sound of his tin can alarm, his head pounding. Waking up with a hangover, his head had felt like a hollow tunnel that carried the sound vibrations of an eardrum.



“Where is my headache medicine? I always keep them on the nightstand.” He tried not to yell too loud. He swayed his head in an aloof manner in the general direction where his girlfriend Maggie stood across the hall in the bathroom brushing her… Continue

Here we go again…



It’s red, it’s large, and it sits on the side of the road in all its octagonal glory…



How is it possible for someone to miss this bright red signage entirely? Tell me, please. If it’s because the driver is scrolling or texting or talking on their cell phone… please, by all means, pull over, get out of the car, and kick yourself in the ass because you’re an idiot are you shouldn’t be driving if you can’t… Continue

Honestly, how fucking hard is it? I mean, really...



I took a little drive today to Ahwatukee. This is where one of my many doctors happens to have her office. It’s pretty much on the other side of town for me, hence, mostly freeway. After discovering that I probably should have checked my damn voicemail at home, which I forget to do because I'm not used to having a home phone, and rescheduling the appointment for Halloween, which is a… Continue

The wastebasket made a sound, like rustling, but not like the rustling of leaves on a breezy autumn day, and more like the noise a mouse would make if it were in the wall and eating something or scratching at the wall. I paused to listen carefully, my ears attuned to the quiet still of the night, because all others in the house were sleeping, as it was two in the morning and no one would be up until at least eight in the morning, unless my mother woke up earlier...







*Yes,… Continue

I ran across something recently that 1) has me giggling in silent rapture, and 2) has me thanking the author of this aptly-called Form Hate Mail (I'm giggling at the title, too), on Colleen Lindsay's blog "The Swivet," for leaving an opening somewhere in the query world for the rest of us. What can I say, I'm easily amused and quick to jump into the place of morons that fall... and fall… Continue

Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, has made it known to the nation that she would like to see to the destruction of wolves in her state by placing a bounty on their heads of $150. Is this not an archaic and barbaric practice, the likes of which have not been seen in nearly 100 years? Of course, the bounty was rapidly thrown out by a state court. However, Alaska’s aerial gunning practices continue. Not only is this practice affecting Alaska, but… Continue