Sea-Soaked Goldenrod
They think I did it. My brain like a fractal array of stars; police coercion can fill any blackness between to make their own constellations. I call it false…
Stovohobo
71 stories written on Ficly, 2009–2013, shared under CC BY-SA 3.0. Their page on ficly.com
Gold Standard
I have sharpened my muscles like a knife on a whick whack rod where the blade slides up and down and up and down, and at the end it’s thin enough to make the…
Notes on a Chest Wound
I awoke to the dull throbbing of crystalline nanofibers weaving themselves through the hole in my chest. It hurt to move my head, but I looked down and watched…
The Snow Baptismal
The mountain feels his aching spine as pounding, hounding arctic howls that wear away his proudly pines disturb his crystal cowl. And on his back, some…
Always Wish With Protection
This is the fourth genie encounter you’ve heard about in the past month. All of them end the same way--the first schmuck asks for two billion dollars, next…
Her Plumb Line Waltz; 1st Movement
On Sundays he would go to the bakery, grab two bagels, and take his Sabbath at her dance studio on tenth. She had live piano during her classes, and when they…
The Astronomer's Nirvana
From his observatory on the peaks of Kejajo, the astronomer leaned back and jumped at the plaintive shriek of his chair’s legs. He realized it was the first…
Just
I know that the devil dishevels your tongue and dwells in the drink or so they tell me. But the devil must be both devil and god because you haven’t heard the…
The Collision Baptismal
At times when the road is slick and premature dusk bloats up the sky, I clasp the steering wheel and shut my eyes. In that suspended moment I feel helpless to…
God's Atlantic Sunsets
Back when I had money I bought this cottage on the Rhode Island coastline--it’s called a cottage in the pamphlets but is in reality a hunched and sprawling…
The Impartial Governor
A supernova murdered a star several million years before the event was seen from Earth. As it happened, Homo habilis gazed at the host above but saw nothing…
Papers, Please
Mr. Beaver kicked at a pile of leaves and took a puff from his cigar. “Foreman!” he cried. A harried-looking beaver in the distance looked up quickly and…
Left the Brandy...
Mr. Beaver lit a fresh cigar and walked with Chris Hare through the hubbub of the forest floor, amid packs of rodents hurrying to and fro, beams hauled…
Aloof, Aloft
Mr. Beaver stood at his penthouse window and stirred his brandy with a lonely claw, watching the animals below mingle like ants among the fallen trees. He…
Seen
“The Unseen, are, in fact, seen. Every day. Every place. They are special…in no way.” The eyes of his mask glew brighter for a second. There was a deadly…
The Unseen's Arrival
There was a quiet pall about the street. The Unseen strode in silence, surrounded by a small army of guards, all clanking armor and softly jangling chains, and…
Fake Estate
It was September fourteenth, two days after the encounter. Zack sat motionless in his car, parked by a curb, a quarter of a mile away from the property…
Mana
July the Twentieth The Year of Our Lord 1533 _It is done. After months of tribulations and slow victories, we have finally drawn out the secret of the Incan…
Asp
Warmth floods in and I start to seize Muscle quakes and tremors cease My eyelids shoot about, trapeze For a second I don’t even pant. For this, made from the…
Concerto No. 2, Overture: Flight of the Filing Cabinet
Reams of paper fly under his hands, ballpoint gliding across them in half-aimless trails. A cough rises from his throat, brushed by a tinge of cigarette smoke…