Apparitions

A line of cars wait in a row behind a stop light while malfunctioning church bells play the wrong songs and the young all blast their music in defense. A man in a wool jacket brushes the dust off a stone chessboard in the park before he sits and waits for any given game. The […]

Jars

They drive across the state with both their windows down to get a better view of all the empty space we waste by never going there. She turns the radio off and ties back her hair just as she notices her sleeve is torn like paper. It isn’t fair how all the little things add […]

Better Things

Pennsylvania toll roads stretching out across the landscape like a scarf. Wire trash bins line all the sidewalks here, and they are kicked over in bursts of frustration at the low points in the week. There are holes in the hillside that work as hallways for light from one side the outskirts to the next. […]

Maximum

I am for the free time we have all long been denied, the names carved in the tree where we can all decide where we want to go at night and who we want to be during the day. It is the only way to keep things moving in this age when every library is […]

Walk On

The overflowing dumpster is the first thing that I see out past my door to this apartment that I never would return to if I could. Acceleration so loud it parts the swarms out in in the streets and all the helicopters up there, to make us scared, are pulled back down to earth with […]

Harmless

I overhear them talk about their problems from where I sit above them on the staircase. She is angry at the whole world for where she’s stuck tomorrow and the next day into on and on and on. He has heard it all before and tells her something different. I can tell just based on […]

Course

She points to a small island on a map her fingernails as red as perfect apples. My task is just to row her out there because the beach there is secluded and she wants the sun to coat her every square. I stare at all the rolling waves and try to keep us moving fast. […]