WANDERING STARS
Manual labor suited Kiichi best. After the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 killed his wife and young daughter, he ended up in Kobe and worked at the port as a ...
Patti Smith Takes a Piss
“She hands off the clarinet, drops behind the plastic and, for the length of time it might take to let loose a good piss she’s just a dark blur in ...
Someday We’ll Dance Again
Set in 1906, a young man from Gibraltar who emigrates to New York City to make a new life for himself and escape the past.
Roman Numeral Relationships
An observation and mediation on modern life and love.
The Compass Turns Thrice
Time is wobbling the way compass points hover or spin for no rhyme or reason on a nautical chart.
ROSIE GOLDSTEIN WAS A DOG
In the fourth grade, boys in the town of Huntington Harbor started to notice which girls were getting tits and who looked like Farrah Fawcett. They divided the girls into ...
The Mothers
I learned there are three ways to make money. Get more people to buy, get people to buy more often, or get people to buy something more expensive.
LOVE-YOU-LOTS
He’s got that new song by The Streets stuck in his head, the one with the music video filmed up the road in Chicken Village. Mike thrums his fingertips on ...
A Tyranny of Wind
“Weather is immune to history, law, diplomacy, and sometimes even reason…”
SHAMU CAM
Shamu Cam came live from Shamu’s tank at Sea World, Orlando….
SCREAM QUEEN
Her screams were top shelf. The kind of earsplitting, blood-curdling shrieks that cut to the marrow, leaving you dazed and numb.
The Future of Love
A woman who is sick turns to love she can pay for.
Getting By, Going By
This morning she pushes a clump of matted hair away from her face as she watches the parade of the Haves marching by in lockstep on their way to work. ...
Outsider, Insider
“Excuse me,” I began, wearing a smile I tried my best to make amiable rather than condescending, “I’m a newcomer here. I notice the people around here are very fond ...
Fry Person
On paper, Arman was not unlike the other applicants. His face, just like the others, was young and hopeful.
When Blankoids Sing They Sound Like Elvis
During the winter of ’98, I think I was in love or obsessed with Mother Teresa. This version had pierced nipples and a coke problem and an oversized Cramps T-shirt ...
Grafted
Before the sun rises, a farmer must tell his son he is adopted. Whilst they attempt to save the life of an orphaned lamb.
Think about It
I must have flailed my arms convincingly because she seemed happy, though you could never tell with Tina. An angel at a party and on the way home a shit-tongued ...
Diptych: Girl, Memory
We prized ourselves on our reliability, our most solid trait. On top of that, she was a whiner; a big-time needer. She even took seconds.
Sometime around Christmas
The city seemed like another world then, bristling with possibilities. Every evening and every weekend was the brink of some discovery.