Author Archives: sputterpub

Sketching

Posted on November 7, 2014 by sputterpub

This pen’s a stick of charcoal in my hand. I sweep in strokes across a page of lined buff paper, spiral-bound and pale as sand, or shade with tiny smudges. All I find outside commuting windows or beyond my walking … Continue reading →

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Little Lottary (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on November 6, 2014 by sputterpub

“Good grief, she’s huge,” came as expected, before the door even shut. “She must weigh a hundred pounds more than she did when I saw her last.” Sheila’s mother came around the bed and sat in the large depression Gwen … Continue reading →

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Little Lottary (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on November 5, 2014 by sputterpub

Gwen was late the next evening. Sheila expected to see her restored friend by six, and was hard-wondering by 6:20. She told herself she was sure Gwen would come. She thumbed the button on the patient-administered analgesia machine, giving herself … Continue reading →

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Little Lottary (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on November 4, 2014 by sputterpub

Word about Sheila’s operation got around fast. Phenomenal medical stories do. “Did you hear about Sheila Ehrman?” one old classmate asked another in the aisles of Safeway. “You remember her: the fat blonde who hung around with Gwen Strybulski? Ginny … Continue reading →

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Noticing Palm Trees

Posted on November 3, 2014 by sputterpub

I owe the gardener my thanks, for Ken by planting something made me notice what was all around me. Here it is again – the evidence my eyes were in a rut. Remarkable: I must admit the sight of tropic … Continue reading →

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Standard Time

Posted on October 31, 2014 by sputterpub

The light we set to saving in the spring we only borrowed; now we must return it so the southern hemisphere can bring its crops to readiness, its skin aburn. We fall this weekend back. We get the hour sacrificed … Continue reading →

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Night Vision

Posted on October 30, 2014 by sputterpub

I went to bed too early, so I dreamt vignettes all night as if my history were made of shorts: remixing trite with tribulation; splintering delight with thorny iterations and retorts. So I beheld the boredom of my youth, saw … Continue reading →

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Timid & Fray (Finish)

Posted on October 29, 2014 by sputterpub

They both had Johns. Jeanie’s had been such a close friend in college that he stood up with her, her man of honor, when she married Keith. They’d been what is now called “friends with benefits” then, and they saw … Continue reading →

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Timid & Fray (Start)

Posted on October 28, 2014 by sputterpub

Jeanie raised her kids ass-backwards. She managed to produce a hesitant mousy male and a daughter who’s always spoiling for a confrontation. She’d like to blame it on Keith’s genes but it’s environmental. And even though Keith was around more … Continue reading →

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Arachnidoma

Posted on October 27, 2014 by sputterpub

How like a spider I become of late: how vigilant, and light upon my feet. I carry fourteen times my body weight upon a clue of gossamer, as neat as mercury. Renewing my own bed at least six days a … Continue reading →

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