As Old as the Ages, As Young as Today

She slowly slips out of dark's star-jeweled robe to don, and then undress, the orange rind bikini— a blush as shameless as Venus dimming— and arrays—again, as slow as longing— the vast blue skirt of the sun. What is the pun in this riddle?

Midge and Ike on the Lam

“Zip it,” Midge always said. “Zip it kid, or you’re gonna die.” And she would mug what she meant by zipping her thumb and forefinger across her grim lips. "Zip." So this is exactly what Ike did. He zipped it. He was eight years old at the time and figured that zipping it was his … Continue reading Midge and Ike on the Lam →

Weaning

In the slow, urgent cadence of cattle, the black cows move again across a landscape of yellow grass and snow to where they last heard the familiar bawl, dumb to all but ache— whether of teat or heart we men cannot know, though we watch and have had familiar loves that for a summer of … Continue reading Weaning →

The Nature of Josiah Smith

In the spring OC arrived to see how “the fool’d wintered.” He found an empty cabin with the diary open on the rough log bench to a page dated February 12. The entry was, “The onliest hunt that matters is a man hunt. Going hunting.”

The Mis-Making of A Fourth of July Band

His flute was capable of other wonderful sounds, even whole orchestras of lovely sound. But whatever the sheet music told him and wand-waver orchestrated, Ole Clive always managed to make sure C6-very-sharp was one of the sounds his flute managed to tweet.

A Man in Search of a Squirrely Dictionary

Most people familiar with the squirrel, think of a bushy tail and backyard bird feeder robbery. The squirrels of most urbanite’s experience nest in trees and scold other people for the most innocuous behavior. They are very territorial and have been known to yell at people for no more apparent reason than that the person … Continue reading A Man in Search of a Squirrely Dictionary →

The Shaman in the Cave

Here in the silence, the smoldering dark, breathing the smoke of smothering, the odor of smoke and grave earth mingling, he moves his ocher wand. The bull is earth and mind. His terror at what he makes is less than the joy, much less than who have just left mother above to find this bull … Continue reading The Shaman in the Cave →

Two Minds, Same House

She prays: “the rainbow— It's the full promise of god!” He sniffs the wet earth. In response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt word: petrichor. And the Word of the Day Challenge kin .

A Day Too Cold for Goat

Sometimes I wish I never opened that parcel that mom gave me for Halloween. So, I was glad to see the way it was on Sunday. It was gray and cold all day. The wind was cold. It shook the trailer and scratched the branch of the dead cottonwood back and forth across the window. … Continue reading A Day Too Cold for Goat →