‘The beauty of a star-shaped figure—a hexagonal star, say—isimpaired if we regard it as symmetrical relatively to a given axis’(Ludwig Wittgenstein) ‘I’m at sixes and sevens here…’ Those were the last words she remembered her grandfather saying before his end. The words that followed were garbled consonants articulated by theContinue Reading

He hadn’t had much, not that muchfor him anyway. For his stomach that guzzled bottlesand cups and little plastic shooters. Eyes glazed,lamps dim, summer tongues, pendulumhands – ones that pulled me into cat-black nightswhere no one could spy. He hadn’t had much, but I knewit was enough for him toContinue Reading

There was an old woman made of rags who lived under thesink.She threatened everybody.Get your filthy hands off me!The sink was worse.He loved cigars. And he was a racist.He spit at people. He kicked at people.He was not really a sink but an old man bent to look like aContinue Reading

The house groans as the wind tries to rip it apart tugs at its loose shingles and the ancient tar paper beneathfinds its way through the cracks in the rough window frames rattles and rustles the plastic taped around the sills.   We groan as we hear the places our house isContinue Reading

phone homephone homeit’s miles awayyou’re miles awaydisconnectedbut the landline’s still plugged inby thin wiresand electrical pulsesgoing this way and thatlike memories traversing back and forththrough mountains and oceans in your mindyou almost can’t bring-ring yourself to hang on…ring-ringfamily gathering-ringparents overbearing-ringa weight you’re shouldering-ringdangling on a heartstring-ringsplintering-ringjumping and teetering-ringerring-ringregretting. . .hello?hellContinue Reading

The fist climbs into a town. The fist climbs into a canyon. Thefist fits inside a cave beside a waterfall.The boy and the girl were making love in the small lake whenthe hand came through the waterfall. It was the size of a delivery truck. The waterfall split in twoContinue Reading