Radiance

Broken wine bottles like thin obsidian scattered across the pavement. Skin cut open by cold wind, worn down by fingernails chewed jagged from the nerves. Hotel paintings sag inward supported poorly by splintered broken frames, covered in gasoline, to be burned for warmth and something bright to look at. The acrylic paint starts to melt […]

First Snow

Empty storefronts boarded up like they were trying to keep the sunlight out. I watch three men push a white truck up a hill, surrounded by traffic, doing whatever they can to get out of the way. Chunks of concrete fall off the sides of decaying overpasses, and crush small dogs on leashes sniffing around […]

Explicit Messages

The sidewalks are empty for miles, snakes drying out into skins. They had something important to tell us, but we couldn’t hear them over the roaring wind, and the music from the radio, tied to a tree branch, spinning. Disorienting sounds so loud they made the birds take off and curse, in that bird language […]

Refraction

I wait on the curb worried about how I look to everyone. I know logically no one is watching. They are focused on their destinations, and nagging nightmares in the shapes of tree branch shadows; cast by moonlight through their windows like a prism refracting dark. No one else is standing still. They are all […]

Anthem Of Actual Substance

Graffiti covered stop signs become targets for red knuckle punches. The only people allowed to draw any blood are the authorities. Self righteous in the dishing out of violence, training dogs to bite the testicles off of those who try to run away. Loud music shaking the windows in cars, they bend the bars to […]

Miracle

Coolers chill, full of half melted ice, and soaked cans of sugar and beer. You make contact with the eyes of a girl for a brief moment as she looks up and then all you see is fear. The chattering across the crowd, all there for sex and sound, stops. Their palms and fingers against […]

Old Songs

You save the paper plates like china, in a cabinet, no one can touch, but you. You play music on the record player your grandmother left behind. It sits in the corner by the window, so people that walk by can notice it, and be reminded of old songs. When you cook I can smell […]