They purchased the mountain house in the summer of their 39th years. The husband worked part-time at the brewery in Golden while the wife commuted to Denver to serve as a corporate accountant. A sizable inheritance from the wife’s parents made it unnecessary to work, but neither knew what to do with themselves if they didn’t. They held no artistic ambitions or hobbies they cared to explore. They had no interest in children. Two dogs, one large and one small, ran around the property left to their own devices. There was no cable, so they had a satellite dish installed. When the weather was poor, the television snowed. Animals wandered through the yard. Black bear, elk, mountain goats. Birds flew up from below to reach the house, appearing from under the cliff face that formed their property’s edge. The wife enjoyed witnessing this phenomenon far more than the husband. It had long been rumored gray wolves would be reintroduced in Colorado. Both waited eagerly for that.
Continue reading “Snow by Wilson Koewing “Category: All Stories
Carried by Yash Seyedbagheri
The coffee shop with the sunshine walls closes. The skies are dark with charcoal-colored clouds. Home looms, Nick’s thesis waiting to be formatted with precision. Half inch margins flush with some part of the page or another. Overdue credit card bills demand their due. Graduation looms.
There’s no more time to sit and absorb laughter and dirty jokes. No time to watch undergraduates and senior citizens move with ease and a devil-may-care attitude.
The world awaits.
Continue reading “Carried by Yash Seyedbagheri”Literally Reruns – Reminiscing: [WARNING! DANGER! SAFEGUARD the VIRGINS!] Adult Content by Hugh Cron
It was fun to see this again. Thanks Leila for dragging it out from the X file box:
Continue reading “Literally Reruns – Reminiscing: [WARNING! DANGER! SAFEGUARD the VIRGINS!] Adult Content by Hugh Cron”Week 327: Twenty-six Ways to Weave Your Drunkard
Everything is offensive. There’s no plainer way to put it. There is no topic that can be brought up that is universally inoffensive.
“What about a box of cute newborn puppies?” A voice in my head asked, when I first conceived the opening paragraph.
“Gotta do better than that head voice,” I said. “Try to fight this: ‘Cute, but that breed shits on the floor, no matter how hard you teach ‘em not to. How dare you rekindle that memory.’”
“Okay. How about World Peace and True Love? Surely no one can complain about them,” my head voice said; for it was a stubborn head voice that needed to be smacked on the nose more than once.
“Munitions manufacturers will find something wrong with the first and the second does not exist. Go away, head voice.”
Case closed.
Continue reading “Week 327: Twenty-six Ways to Weave Your Drunkard”The Human Condition by Monika R. Martyn
In life, everyone knows a version of Dave. Dave is the sort of man who is never any good with the ladies. Sure—he can joke with them at arm’s length, the innocuous touch on the shoulder, the forearm. And because a sprig of humor always plays on his lips, he smiles most of the time. He also suffers from a continuous string of good manners and never fails to hold doors open for the ladies, and flatters them on new sweaters and haircuts. Without crossing into hashtag territory, he comforts them when they confide in him.
Continue reading “The Human Condition by Monika R. Martyn”Empty Histories by Yash Seyedbagheri
At the coffee shop, all the tables are full, both the rectangular tables and the smaller square ones. People fill each side, hunched over computers and stacks of notes. There are boyfriends and girlfriends in turd-colored hoodies and skimpy white tank-tops, parents and children dissecting fractions and Abraham Lincoln, laughter, hugs, shoving, F-bombs deployed with cheer, fusillades of life fired into my ears.
Continue reading “Empty Histories by Yash Seyedbagheri”Mother by Josh Walker
My mother always liked the idea of being queen. I think that’s why I hated her so much.
Though she believed we lived in a palace our home was modest and our garden was, to my delight, unruly. She wore clothes she couldn’t afford, stained with perfumes so sweet they made me feel sick. Her king had left her and she had no other children. Her only kingdom was me.
Continue reading “Mother by Josh Walker”In For a Penny, In For a Pound by David Thomas Peacock
You find meaning where you make it, I thought, polishing off my second bourbon and getting up to leave. I’d stopped by Puffy’s after an early piano gig, hoping to take the edge off before heading home. I couldn’t stop thinking about the old man —always worrying about him, continually reframing the narrative in my mind. I’m grateful for the time I have left with him was the best I could come up with.
Continue reading “In For a Penny, In For a Pound by David Thomas Peacock”Cohort Retirees by Tom Sheehan
Each Raytheon retiree’s email, each contact with an old co-worker, though distant, departed, an accidental approach, brings me back to places, offices, plant sections and locations, that I left in my past and where I find those that never let go, holding on with clever clutches; some of my favorite people ever climb back into my present circumstance, letting me know they do not let go, not easily, not knowingly, not without a sidewise look I can remember as if it was sent my way yesterday.
Continue reading “Cohort Retirees by Tom Sheehan”Literally Reruns – The Maestro in the Baggy, Red Sweater by David Henson
The author of this piece has been around since the beginning and it’s lovely that Leila has chosen one of his pieces to Rerun – this is what she said:
Continue reading “Literally Reruns – The Maestro in the Baggy, Red Sweater by David Henson”