As a tadpole, I spent my days lounging atop the spongey remains of yesterday’s dinner or soaking in the gurgling, acrid pool I called home. I whipped my tongue at falling bits of meat and beans. When bored, I practiced… Continue Reading
“I’m sorry,” said the clerk looking down on me with a sympathetic look on her face, “but we’re all out of Joy. Could I interest you in a box of Cheerfulness?” I looked at the shelf and saw the gaping… Continue Reading
The Collector, through no shortage of hearsay, means and compulsion, met one M. Muñoz underneath the Old Bridge. Birthplace unknown, age unknown, first name unknown, dubious wedding band on ring finger, Muñoz bled into his work—cut open his body and… Continue Reading
Jenny had swallowed time and space. A lot of it. And now she was feeling…what? Bloated? Yes. Reflux? Maybe. Heartburn? Definitely. “Have some time. Have some space.” Mark, her boss, had instructed on that initial dreadful day—without her husband, with… Continue Reading
I knew I was condemned from the moment they took the gold candlesticks. They ripped up the carpets and tore aged curtains from their oak rails. Workers clad in grey overalls lifted every part of me away, chucking it into… Continue Reading
“You were born during the summer of locusts,” Cole’s mother would explain when he asked why he was different, why he was the way he was. But it never made sense. He had no long, beefy hopper legs. No antennae.… Continue Reading
He was the first customer of the day. I pulled out my earbud and stuck my phone in my back pocket. Then I checked my tablet to confirm his name. “Hello… Robert?” The man looked up from his seat. He… Continue Reading
I once had this mate who only loved his gal when she was wearing her glasses. Yeah! Or at least he was only attracted to her when she had them on — and try loving a bird you’re not attracted… Continue Reading
Your medicine cabinet is spotless, curated. Candy-colored dropper vials, squat pearlescent tubs, and crystalline perfumes all lined up like a miniature, glittering skyline. You’ve turned them inward — shyly, discreetly — so I can’t read the labels. You’re daring me… Continue Reading
Across Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, I hunt it. My eyes burst vessels. My wife leans in the door, saying, “Babe, you’ve got work in the morning.” I wasn’t religious until sickness ignited my brain. Not madness, electricity. Seizures sparking from nowhere,… Continue Reading