Random posts and exercise products from a pursuit of the writing life.
On the edge of town, near the fallow gulch, the tinkerer walked the row by night, a shadow amidst the moistness and moonbeams, seeking scrap and shard. His eyes strained to find the lost things, the broken items, the discarded debris, marred mementos from better days, from happier hearts, from livelier loves, from healthier...
Read more →When Elmer Perch was seven, he and his good ole uncle with a dagger heart forearm tattoo went for a backcountry drive, and then a walk, and his Uncle Lemmie challenged him to a stick throwing contest. Uncle Lemmie was a giant man with a large beer belly, but when he was younger, Lemmie...
Read more →Nobody likes to sit in a collapsing house. Or on a plummeting plane. Or over a bankrupted business. Or in a foxhole under fire. That’s why there is “practical thinking.” Good happens, but bad still happens too. You try to plan to alleviate or avoid the bad. But it still happens. Cars crash. Cancer...
Read more →It is 11 and the words do not come, denied by drowse and doubt and indifference and fear, some too hot to hoist, the rest too dull to write, the sheet before me a vast white gulf, a deep white crevasse that swallows ideas whole. I can only describe their reticence, which is mine,...
Read more →One day he preached a sermon, and then the next he looked at his life, and he realized the only lecture he ever wanted to again offer needed to be spoken in the clarity of his actions, in the honesty of his transactions, in the gracefulness of his interactions, in the gentleness of his...
Read more →“Welcome to Omni Space Adventures, where No Star is Too Far™. My name is Niall. How may I help you today?” His face warped and fuzzed on the view screen. “Yes- hello- are you real?” “Of course. Punch me, and I will bawl my eyes out.” “That is a strange thing to say.” “It...
Read more →It’s a mountain to climb over- all that I know all that I see all that I owe All that I’m wanting all that I’ve blown all I deserve all that I own All that consumes me all I must say all I must accomplish all I must pay All I belong to all...
Read more →The man of conscience blusters in the forum, child of the chosen ones, inspired and empowered to usher in His holy dominion upon the backs of his constituents, aided by the kindness of lobbyists and the prescience of the preachers. God put these men in office, God put this plan in motion, God put...
Read more →Blessed is the man who pays his debts, known and unknown, whose thoughts remain on keeping a clean slate and correct books and remaining daily in good standing and not inviting time in the prison. He lives for more than for what he hungers and submits his wants to his needs, and submits his...
Read more →Love doesn’t always give us what we want. It flies from what we wish, what we dream, these radiant visions, and lifts our hopes for the right, the strong, the good, so when the painted picture dries, and perfection stares back at us, in brilliant hues, we see truth, and promise, and clarity. Passion...
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Tonight it rained, and while she didn’t look a day older, my sister turned a calendar year over, welcoming a new number to the sum symbol of her years, and she still acted the same, strong and confident and concerned and striving, happy and thoughtful and mostly content. The cats yawned when I came...
Read more →When the sun began diving, we met on the road. The lane was uneven, or so I am told. She bent under a basket of laundry and coal, I asked if I could bare it and gave it a go. The sun was dyspeptic, a regular bear, but I didn’t mind as we walked...
Read more →When Jesse had driven two miles east on State Road 7, he turned left onto the two track that zigged in gentle curves up Tanner’s Hill, and on into the cut between Tanner’s Hill and a swell of BLM land. He drove slow, looking about him and, in the mirror, back into the broad...
Read more →A week after Will’s accident, the entire town turned out for a pep rally parade down main street and a celebration of life service in the high school gym, put on by several of his old high school teammates, several teachers, and two of his old team mothers. They had insisted. There was a...
Read more →When Jesse was 20, he had met Colin in a shop course at the college. Colin was a year his younger, and he was the kid brother of Will Martin- the Will Martin, who had set several district records in track and football as a ball carrier when he was in high school. Will...
Read more →At about 4PM, Jesse decided it was time to go, so he locked up the cabin after he grabbed the cookie tin off of the table and his old denim jacket and his hat. A light rain pelted the soil on the walk down to the driveway and his pickup, and the smell of...
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