Industrial Suburb

Squirrels on wires dangle and when they’re done they don’t. Some kids are cracking rocks over a backyard fence with broom handles, not for lack of proper equipment, but for a challenge. One of their older sisters has her boyfriend in the basement, and they are whispering about parts of themselves always hidden behind clothes […]

Clean

A bad weld leads to metal in the eye, and swaths of highway between industrial parks. The youngest nod their heads to maxed out music in their cars, in preparation for the noise throughout their shifts. The remaining forests serve only as barriers between one group of houses and the next. Buried under the oldest […]

Portrait of a Traveler

Empty towns mark the miles between wheat fields, and golden nothing, accented by the sun. She is there, the only one, tying her shoes on the roadside. She lets the screaming semi’s pass, and the vans, and flashy convertibles, just wanting to be alone. She drags her feet and kicks the stones that collect in […]

Smear

Seasonal colds make everyone think that they’re dying, but they feel more alive when it happens to somebody else. After the violent phlegm clearing struggles that trickle out in random intervals, we all remember that we live within the mud. A smear of it on some wall we can’t conceive, but still we believe that […]

Mountain

I never taken time to see a mountain and I’ve had the chance a few times in the past. Ignorant of great heights, I picture what it looks like past the edges. Purple is the color I most associate with mountains, even though that isn’t what they are. All of my instincts on this subject […]

Consecration of Crows

Tree bark with no details just sharp shadows in front of distant sky. The crows give each other warnings about skulking too close to their claims. Usually consisting of a goat, now just a sack of broken insides picked apart. They go for the heart without consideration for their feathered souls. There are no hidden […]

Gaps

Behind the heavy gray clouds is a burning sun, but its light still finds its way through all the gaps. I stand in the parking lot full of potholes and broken bottles, and stare into the rays sporadically fighting their way down to us. There is so much more dark in the sky today. The […]