Author Archives: sputterpub

Talk

Posted on October 9, 2017 by sputterpub

I try to talk too much. I always did. I started shortly after learning speech. Conversing more than any other kid in family or school, like I would teach by my example how to self-express, each interaction was an interview. … Continue reading →

Posted in Language, Poetry | Leave a comment

MotorMouth

Posted on October 6, 2017 by sputterpub

She’d learned enough to talk when she was two. She used the skill so often that her speech grew quick and quite sophisticated too: vocabulary years beyond the reach of playmate ears, the patience of her mom, attention any teacher … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Writing | Leave a comment

Web Weather

Posted on October 5, 2017 by sputterpub

The peach I bought was mealy. Local plums are past their prime, and golden nectarines look better than they taste. The season comes of evening chill and wafting wind that cleans the air and scours faded leaves from trees. It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Critters, Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

Sweetlessness

Posted on October 4, 2017 by sputterpub

Del knew something was up the minute Annie walked through her door. There’d been foreshadowing in their phone conversation, and there was also thirty-two years of experience. “I need your bathroom!” Annie declared as she darted toward the toilet. Her … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Food, Health | Leave a comment

Prompts

Posted on October 3, 2017 by sputterpub

I used to read a writers’ magazine. I gave it up for teaching nothing right. But I recall advice – where you can glean ideas for plots and people: how you might pay heed to all the chatter in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Writing | Leave a comment

October 2

Posted on October 2, 2017 by sputterpub

October is my favorite month, and now’s the season that awakens me to test a version of myself I mean. I rouse as days reduce and green retreats. My best behavior comes with comfort after storm, with evenings cold as … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Labyrinth

Posted on September 29, 2017 by sputterpub

The labyrinth that Daedalus designed and built to house a misbegotten bull, was crafted with imprisonment in mind: its convolutions blind until a pull upon a clue of thread revealed its ways, bisecting mystery with nothing hard. A king’s intent, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Writing | Leave a comment

Muni Metro

Posted on September 28, 2017 by sputterpub

A boyish lesbian, commuting west, who dropped her phone and earbuds on the tracks, did something that I never would have guessed: she looked and leaped. I watched her denim back, her short dark hair, her bend and turn around, … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

Hard Ass

Posted on September 27, 2017 by sputterpub

“You never know what you’re going to do, until you’re confronted with the situation.” How many times has Del heard this? Why do so many people say it? In Del’s case, and in that of some others, it just isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Fiction | Leave a comment

Choppers

Posted on September 26, 2017 by sputterpub

The chop of helicopters overhead does not create a happy atmosphere. I’m not too old to recollect the dread machines surveilling us and shooting tear gas canisters when I attended school, and though today they’re shooting news for us, at … Continue reading →

Posted in Neighborhood, Poetry | Leave a comment