Author Archives: sputterpub

Assuming

Posted on June 6, 2012 by sputterpub

Perhaps it was the distance from home turf that softened me, perhaps the spanking blue of sky that pried me open, pounding surf, eroding wind that turned ideas askew, but I was struck by tender gesture, seen outside a small … Continue reading →

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Traffic (Part 4 of 4)

Posted on June 5, 2012 by sputterpub

Airline travel died. Trains and buses began to lose business a few months later. Early in 2013 the home delivery of newspapers ended. That service had always been both a luxury and a security nuisance. At the end of May … Continue reading →

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Traffic (Part 3 of 4)

Posted on June 4, 2012 by sputterpub

Clara had never been camping, and she liked everything about it except the mosquitos. She hated them. She didn’t understand why something so horrible had such a cute name. Little moscas: mosquitos. They were ugly, hideous bloodsucking abominations as far … Continue reading →

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Dance Marathon

Posted on June 1, 2012 by sputterpub

We overflowed the hall – we’re such a crowd we littered every niche and split the schools. While other cohorts gossiped we made loud eruptive innovations, suffered fools, invented newer music, ate vaccines, and danced until the sun sent us … Continue reading →

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Traffic (Part 2 of 4)

Posted on May 31, 2012 by sputterpub

Starting late in 2012, American society ceased to move. Communities turned inward, made do with less, stopped interacting. But some of the college-age kids, those who had been associating most freely with each other, refused to quit. Clara and Hank … Continue reading →

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Traffic (Part 1 of 4)

Posted on May 30, 2012 by sputterpub

Before the Jihad, travel was easy. Before the Jihad, “jihad” meant holy war, but terrorists and the media changed that. Muslims had to come up with another word for holy war, afterwards. After-word. In the old days, travel was easy. … Continue reading →

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Studio

Posted on May 29, 2012 by sputterpub

I feared I’d waste myself: I used to dream recurrently about an unused room. Reminded nightly to it, I’d redeem it from the day’s oblivion, resume a planned inhabitance, investigate its windowless perimeter, and then I’d wake to tasks already … Continue reading →

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Deliberately Adrift

Posted on May 25, 2012 by sputterpub

I used to have an automatic gauge. It didn’t matter where or when I went: there always was a crowd of folks my age around me. We are the experiment abused by apres bellum attitude (they fought to keep us … Continue reading →

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School Spirit (2 of 2)

Posted on May 24, 2012 by sputterpub

They never make it to the vigil. Rob is hauled into the waiting area outside the dean’s office, and after 19 minutes he is summoned inside and suspended for three days. Colleges are informed; he always afterwards believes he was … Continue reading →

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School Spirit (1 of 2)

Posted on May 23, 2012 by sputterpub

It is the first execution in almost 20 years. The state intends to kill James Abner Maddox, and the students are against that. Their high school looks like the prison; the seniors enjoy not a lawn but a quad. They … Continue reading →

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