Author Archives: sputterpub

Bonafide Bitch

Posted on August 24, 2016 by sputterpub

I think I’ve always been a dog person. I remember Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. Among my early books was one called Champion Dog Prince Tom, about a runt cocker spaniel who made it big in obedience trials. When Dad … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Neighborhood | Leave a comment

Melanoma

Posted on August 23, 2016 by sputterpub

“He’s gone to life’s next phase,” the mother wrote to thousands in the database of prayer. She typed her pain around a guru’s quote and filled our monitors with grief. “Beware the power of the sun. Apply your screen without … Continue reading →

Posted in Health, Poetry | Leave a comment

August Lilies

Posted on August 22, 2016 by sputterpub

The belladonna bloom in August light upon their rhubarb tubes. They focus out like gramophones, their silent song a shout of heated pink, their beauty overbright. The crinum stretch in shade to freakish height. Among their ramps of foliage, they … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

Fat Sonnet

Posted on August 19, 2016 by sputterpub

With swollen legs and burning heart and every cell athirst, with flesh as tight as drumskin and a roughened tongue accursed from all the salts and fats and sweets that nearly made me burst, I pen this song of pig-and-bloat, … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior Modification, Food, Health, Poetry | Leave a comment

More on Myth

Posted on August 18, 2016 by sputterpub

Once upon an ancient time ago, men were just as primitive as now. Hormonally impelled to fight and show the women who’s in charge, they monkeyed how to raise a god reflective of their need: to make a masculine mythology, … Continue reading →

Posted in Legends, Poetry | Leave a comment

Carless

Posted on August 17, 2016 by sputterpub

They finally took Bertilda’s car. Her conservator showed up with a colleague and official papers. I happened to be in my front yard and was recruited as a witness or interpretor. The conservator’s name is Leah. She’s a plump black … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Neighborhood | Leave a comment

Re

Posted on August 16, 2016 by sputterpub

To Whom It May Concern, the contract read, and Be It Known, In All Events, To Wit, for Time Is Of The Essence, someone said, and now’s essentially appropriate for purposing in private to amend – desired more than any … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior Modification, Poetry | Leave a comment

Belladonna Etc

Posted on August 15, 2016 by sputterpub

The naked ladies huddle past their prime – their petals flag like ribbons on the stilts that leafless held them half a summertime. Their color loud as lusting cats, they wilt. With tops of white, the crinum stand like men … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

Missing Mything

Posted on August 12, 2016 by sputterpub

While mustangs are abundant in the West, nobody here has seen a unicorn. And though some Salem ladies once confessed to witchery, our homeland is forlorn of wizards, warlocks, covens in the night, familiars, fauns or fairies in the wood, … Continue reading →

Posted in Legends, Poetry | Leave a comment

Masque

Posted on August 11, 2016 by sputterpub

The seasoned salts of ancient history included superstitions in their trade. Encountering the buxom manatee, they chanty-named the animal “mermaid.” Were they by saline spray and fog so blind, or by long voyaging did they forget? They saw the attitude … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, Health, Legends, Poetry | Leave a comment