Tag Archives: Mainstream

Word Count: 302 It was surprising, to see the little boy standing still in a crowd of moving people, like a small oak tree in a field of waving oat. His hands hung down by his side, his fingers half-curled … Continue reading →

Word Count: 229 He was surprised to wake up to the sun shining because in his dreams he had willed it to burn itself out. After forty-eight hours of sleep he’d gotten used to the black and gray world. He … Continue reading →

Word Count: 322 He was placed in a corner and told to sit still and not move. When he grew fidgety he looked around for his parents. He saw his mother, with a drink in her hand, talking with a … Continue reading →

Word Count: 293 Aunt Doreen comes at you with her candlestick lips, ruby red wax that she’ll streak on your cheek like a scar. She used to kiss you on the lips until you turned twenty-two and she heard the … Continue reading →

Word Count: 227 Lord help me, I never saw the child within the man. It was too easy to look instead at his girth, the broad shoulders, the tower with the light shining blink-blink-blink above me. Some women will put … Continue reading →

Word Count: 383 My sister was older and should have known better, but I got away scot-free. It was always like that but my folks didn’t see it, that I was the smart one, the instigator, the one who got … Continue reading →

Word Count: 403 I followed him, the man who spent his days walking up and down Broadway. He would stop at noon, sit down in front of the Chinese take-out, when they were too busy to chase him away. He … Continue reading →

Word Count: 341 Three friends down, one to go. Daphne was her last hope for a Friday night spent away from the serene solitude that after a month had become cloying, suffocating. She swore that one more night breathing in … Continue reading →

Word Count: 261 She looked through the closets and under the bed. She went through every dresser drawer and took everything off shelves to check along the walls and into dark corners. Desperate, she went through all the kitchen cabinets, … Continue reading →

Word Count: 430 I counted only five stars in the western sky this morning, the rest lost to the reach of the slow rising sun. They cluster together as if there is safety in number, as if they could stand … Continue reading →