Kids in war torn villages tend to look for anything they can find to play with. Bao, a five year old boy, who lived with his family in a tent due to the bombing that destroyed their house, found a shiny red box near his family's temporary home. With excitement Bao rushed home to show the box to his 9 year old sister. As soon as his sister opened the box, the bomb inside went off and killed them both. Their parents working in a nearby field heard the loud noise and rushed toward the tent to…

...is what I'm enjoying most today.

The Good, the Bad, and the Invisible
Dirty Chairy
Benchwoods of Madison County
Every Which Way but Lucid

There's gold here, what am I missing?

I was so bad when I was a kid my mother sold me to Gypsies; they sued, took our house, and I tarred their driveway.

I was so bad I grew horns and Father Flotsky condemned me to hell; the devil fled back to La Jolla.

I was so bad that Santa came down the chimney and took all my shit.

So bad that they brought back the chair--in Mama Lou's daycare on 12th Street.

So bad that Capone went to church.

So bad that the Crips took up knitting, the Bloods…

The Hayneville Tool and Die plant closed for a half day on Friday to give workers a jump start on Labor Day festivities. Shop foreman Coy Collander locked up, washed his hands and face at the outdoor spigot, then drove to Biloxi to enjoy three days of free casino drinks and the company of a widow woman from Hattiesburg.

Bootsy Sykes had to stop his overheating pickup truck twice on the way home and suddenly the idea hit him…

Addiction gets old.

As in three days older than dirt.

It was around when water got wet.

It fools you too.

Makes you think you're out on the edge where glory awaits.

Before you get old.

On a freezing quayside in Rotterdam's Europort I stood in awe of the thing in front of me. It was a ship, not any old ship, a  gigantic monster, a brand new super-tanker.

It was a vast slab of steel and pipes with a multitude of  brilliant lights shining every which way but loose. It didn't have a gang plank, it had one of those zig-zag towers like something out of Cape Canaveral. It stretched over 1100 feet in length and the superstructure climbed into the sky like a high…

Mona has been sleeping in the back of Biatch Books for over a month, now, ever since Norman stole the renderer's truck and crashed a load of dead horses into her living room.

Norman hightailed it but ran out of booze in Missoula and DT'd a trip to the ER where he was arrested on warrants going back 30 years.…

Crickets chirp loudly to each other in the big yard and garden—nature’s sound curtain to a cool and pleasant summer evening.  Fireflies twinkle in the darkness, odd little floating lights that wink into being, then vanish; soon they will be mine.  Mosquitoes have driven the humans indoors, so now the wispy blood-suckers are hypnotically drawn to me, my holy white light calling them, killing them, incinerating them out of existence. 

I am bright death, electricity made lethal, the…

Within 48 hours, I'll see my father again, first time in fourteen years.

He has become one of those keepsakes on a high shelf, the sort you never touch or talk about.  You dust it periodically.  It means something, but you can't put it into words, so you just hang on.

I wrote last week that I'd call him when I arrive in Fort Worth tomorrow, and I've decided to invite him to my hotel for lunch, before he's had too much to drink, so we can talk about now and…

“Another bad day at work?”

“Yeah, and my boy, Andy, announced his retirement today, too.”

“Saw that and knew you’d be in a state of depression.”…

... the words do not come gushing forth though I am heavy, weighted down with them.

... the contractions are strong and I can hear the beep beep beep, feel the building tension until I must, I must, I must...

... no, not time yet.  Just a few more words spilled up on the page, but they are just waters, not child.

... over and over again, because the words must come out and the idea must be born, and yes, it is worthy, but more than that, there is no stopping…

He lined his 45,000 men to the east, infantry centered, cavalry flanked, and had the line bend like a bow in the middle as 86,000 Romans and allies pressed forward.

He'd lined his men to the east, ensuring the Romans would also battle the sun as it rose, and eat the dust that blew west from the sea; moreover, the Romans had no water to drink as the dust filled their throats, as Hannibal's raiders had choked off supplies from their camps.

His center bent to the Romans, and his…

Robert smells like Lazarus and hasn't changed his clothes since, probably, the

resurrection.

He usually lives in the so-called 'Nightmare housing' complex in Allentown but…

What distance am I from the tree? Oh how far I’ve fallen. But did I fall or did something let go? Bruised, trampled upon, will no one pick me up? Go into the ground and wait, for what happens next is anyone’s guess. I don’t believe I’ll return.

Three loud alarms sound at the beginning of each image series, consecutive and from different directions.  They are sounds I associate with danger, with nuclear reactors exploding, bomb raids and airplanes going down.

The narrow tunnel is longer than I am, a white coffin lit from the inside though how can I know this with my eyes squeezed shut?

I hold tight a small rubber ball attached to a wire, a "panic" device I have been instructed to squeeze if I…

A dance with trick midgets on Fantasy Island; a package from Acme direct to your door.

A coyote slinking through sagebrush, looking to pluck the heart from a fool; a fool's satisfaction before midnight strikes.

An adman's simulacrum of all we hold dear; a foul priest's injunction; tits and ass softened by Hollywood lighting; a tan and deep pockets; an entry into the glitz world of dreams; a bus that turns left when Eden heads off in another direction. 

Cheap liquor and…

If life was a board game, I would choose to skip my turn on days like today.

If life was a board game, I would always buy Boardwalk first, because I love the ocean and the sound of Arcade games dinging and singing and the smell of pizza and zeppoles.

If life was a board game, I would only mind not Passing Go because it meant I wouldn't get my $200 and I need that $200 to spend on the Boardwalk!

If life was a board game, I would choose to be the little silver…

It seems like there's more around than there used to be.  This makes the fifth person I've known personally, in just the past few years.

They say it's a case of Life gone rogue at the cellular level, unrestrained growth expanding without regard to function or boundary.

We were having breakfast at a cafe near the University of Washington when you got the call.  I knew by your face the news was grim.

Only an entity oblivious to consequence would…

I followed the course

from chaos to art…

From Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen

In this early morning, she opened the window of the cottage in the heart of the countryside. In fact, she hasn’t been to the countryside for ages. Looking at the raw landscape through the window made her fidget with her thoughts, forgetting that her foundation and lipstick had thawed away in the heat of last night. This made her want to see words naked, raw…

At crossroads of time, at a wintry moonless night the pond was wailing because a donkey was throwing some skins of aubergine in it. Besides, rain didn’t fall to quench its thirst. There were only foggy letters dancing in the sky like a mirage: r~a~i~n. Four letters let the pond badly desire the rain, but in vain.

The pond fulminated against the rain and the donkey. Then blazing insults sullied with a lot of four-letter words followed in succession from the pond like fiery stones…