Author Archives: sputterpub

Disadental

Posted on October 12, 2017 by sputterpub

She lately hates her teeth, and can’t abide the image that her photograph arrests. Her pose before a mirror shows the side that she prefers; in shop-glass, face and chest don’t look too bad, but cameras always still her face … Continue reading →

Posted in Aging, Poetry | Leave a comment

Ears

Posted on October 11, 2017 by sputterpub

Del is an active eavesdropper. That’s not to say she kneels at keyholes or holds glasses up to walls (although she did that once, in a Chicago hotel with her husband, to try to decipher what the couple next door … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Neighborhood | Leave a comment

Fretful

Posted on October 10, 2017 by sputterpub

My mother is a worrier. She finds a dozen ills to fret about a week, detecting dreadful symptoms of all kinds, for they can’t hide as well as she will seek. And lately she is warning me, with stern advice … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry | Leave a comment

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