They must fry bacon and eggs every morning. Layers of black grease built up around the burners. Under the sink, pots with food dried in them, post-depression era thinking leaving piles of pans passed their due — can’t throw anything away, but always important to buy new, and more. A sale means stock up, who [...]
Archive for the ‘short shorts’ Category
Another on the side.
Posted in short shorts, tagged breathing, errands, pillows on March 11, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The Harmonics Were Off.
Posted in short shorts, tagged austin chronicle short story competition, brother on February 11, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Hey all,
This is a piece that I submitted for the Austin Chronicle short story competition. You may recognize some excerpts, but here’s the whole thing. I was selected as one of the 10 finalists but in the end, the judges didn’t come through.
Thanks everyone!
The Harmonics Were Off
It was just last week that he wrote a [...]
Make that guy carry water.
Posted in short shorts, tagged botanic gardens, childhood, fire, play, warm, wood on January 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“No, that’s not how you do it,” I remember her saying to me.
We’d play in the sand box and I’d make my GI Joes build forts and point guns.
“This is where the barbed wire will go,” I’d say and pour some of my cherry kool aid in a hole. “That’s the blood of all the [...]
le calme.
Posted in short shorts, tagged au revoir, bonjour, français, French, l'amour, la mort, la vie, oiseau on November 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
la vie, elle est le souffle, n’est pas? les cycles lents qui vont dedans et dehors: en respirant, le jour devient la nuit, l’été devient l’hiver, nos vies deviennent les vies des autres, l’amour, la mort. on dit bonjour. on dit au revoir. on dit bonjour à nouveau.
la nature, elle est silencieuse, non? une branche [...]
jeremy, claudia, gretchen, and a story about a night i missed.
Posted in short shorts, tagged attic, claudia, gretchen, jeremy, king, lake, night, sneak, stars, summer, water on October 19, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I remember sneaking up to the attic when my parents slept with their door closed. I’d pull the bed out that the couch turned into and would flop, flipping from side to side, a king in his luxurious court, presiding over all of himself.
And then there was the time Philip came in and my flopping [...]
Here’s how my brother gets the ladies.
Posted in short shorts, tagged bakery, brother, crush, girl, shirt, Target on October 12, 2009 | 7 Comments »
I met my brother for lunch in between his classes. We went to a bakery that made sandwiches down the street because it was cheap and he had a crush on the girl who worked there. He’d told me about her a few times and when he did, he’d say things like, “she wears charm [...]
An Obvious Distinction.
Posted in short shorts, tagged arthur, magic, sacred, secular, wand on September 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Arthur had a badge certifying his magician license.
He was certified, or so his box of 101 tricks claimed he was.
He wore one of this older brother’s jackets still two sizes too big and a top hat, which he would correct you and say No, it’s a magician’s hat.
He’d use his wand to make a stuffed [...]
summers going fast i hear.
Posted in short shorts, tagged dunes, journal, rain, sand, shirt, summer on September 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I told my mother not to worry and she never did, as mothers do, because these were big summer drops and our toes in the sand digging in deeper and deeper still. Her hemp sandals stayed at the bottom of the dunes, underneath a tree with her bag and leather journal, my shirt, too. The [...]
just the way things have been going lately…
Posted in short shorts, tagged apartment, breakfast, courtyard, couscous, jeremy, mondays, morning, news, orange juice on September 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
i woke up early this morning and had some of the left over couscous for breakfast. the lawn mowers had started earlier than usual in the courtyard, which i suppose is a valid punishment for those, like me, with mondays off.
we still had orange juice and that’s big.
i read a few articles of last weeks [...]
Late Night Scheduling.
Posted in short shorts, tagged bed, goodnight, night, now, questions, schedule, talking on September 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The courtyard light slipped in through the venetian blinds, now closed for the night, and always kept me up for a few moments longer. We joked that living next to a hospital would be a good thing; “Rainy days,” you said, but someone always seemed to get rushed to emergency when I least needed them [...]
