Jimmy never wanted David to get ink. This despite the fact he’d been working as a tattoo artist since he was twenty and was covered in them himself. But whereas he felt compelled to hide in art, his son was art just by virtue of breathing; a flawless pallette inside and out colored through experience. […]
Read More#gallery-40 { margin: auto; } #gallery-40 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-40 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-40 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ He was among the last of the stick ball kids. Erma didn’t care for their noise back then, […]
Read MoreHe died right here. Calia tried to imagine what it was like, closing her eyes and hearing the slap of water against the pilings. He’d heard this sound too. He must have. Or maybe he didn’t because of the clanging chains he’d lugged out, tied to himself and latched to a few cinderblocks with a […]
Read MoreHe’d finally slipped up big enough. Dunnings and Willis had watched him deal for a while now and could have busted him on smaller shit, but they knew he’d be the shark that swam too close to shore sooner or later. They could see his fin jutting out of the murky waters of increasingly worse […]
Read MoreBarry said it over and over again as he stood before the hyper colors of the kids’ tags sprayed all over the white brick wall of the crymbling gym. I am a city. He looked up at the blue sky embrace and felt his fingers were like skyscrapers reaching for Heaven. I am a city! […]
Read MoreThe ripples cast across the inlet at dusk weren’t caused by anything dropped into the water, but it still made Karin think about Joseph. Wind dragging the water into fingerprint ridges, she pictured how his body was pulled from the ocean, lifeless, likely bloated and pale. She didn’t really know him; he’d left high school […]
Read MoreCarmine knew it would happen sooner or later. He’d come home from working all day in the kitchen, and there would be a message in his voicemail or even a letter in the mail telling him Joseph was gone. He didn’t know exactly how it would happen, but his younger brother, the youngest of the […]
Read MoreShe splattered oil paint on the canvas in reckless strokes. Eunice could not stop thinking about him as a boy, one memory sticking out in particular. They were at the beach late in the afternoon and backlit in the reflected light of the setting sun, Joseph splashed and rolled around in a tidal pool, joy […]
Read MoreThe concrete wasn’t the weight holding Joseph under the water as much as his regrets did. He was cold, but thankful for the decision to dive into the end. He knew he could fight, swim with the cinderblock burden of his every poor judgement and selfish grift, from family, from friends, from lovers. But this […]
Read MoreCARBON Have you got a dime, Or do I have to call collect To dial back this surging lust A staticless connection Highwiring between faraway hearts That tiptoe across The perilous sinew That ropes muscle and bone to intention And throttles the loss Of presence. We’re ghosts in the night Swaying like reeds under a […]
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