Thumbtack

I was there because my shoes needed scuffing, and because the air that summer was humid and bug-clotted and I had decided that I would not…

Letters to a Young Poet: An Addendum

Hotel Foyot, 33 rue de Tournon, Paris 8 January 1925

10 Pieces of Non-Advice for Young People

A reductive list for the sake of keeping up the illusion of order.

WANTED 28

Write a horror story that includes these three things: a festering wound, a disembodied voice, and a sex scene.

The Hobbit

It is June of 2004 in Topeka, Kansas. Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers has not yet hit theaters. Depictions of the creature Gollum in popular…

This Place

You are always alone, which had taken some getting used to. You had spent the previous nine months pouring cheap vodka down your throat…

The Egg

When I woke up in the morning, there was an egg.

THE END

All the humiliations of having a body. Is it load-bearing or cosmetic. Not signing the paperwork isn’t an option. You can’t write while walking…

The Bible

Bob wants me to shovel now. He doesn’t say anything. But I can tell. He walks away, down the hill, and leans against a dying ash tree. I…

GOD OF WHEAT

I slattern bramble and wood and moss and amber and sap and milk and buck every frond and arching stem.