Last call for Vegetal.

in the style of summer wind on sea cove, on a long stem, he blows those warm glissando arpeggios.

I can't believe it's Frankie, but there he is at a table on the far side, just in front of the big picture window. I hold the menu close to my face and peek again over the top, watching as he reaches under the white linen tablecloth to plant…

outside the battered gates of self

~!~

Early on, I looked for work; I walked the want-ad trail. Shuttle-driver, apartment leasing expert, laundry technician, account executive, PHP developer, dog sitter, sleep study subject – I would do anything that seemed steady.

Joyce Addleberg hated sleeping alone, so when her husband died in his sleep one night, it was only natural that she kept him around.

“Is that an erect annual plant in your codpiece, Mr. Flax, or are you just glad to see me?”

"Why, before the summer has passed You won’t remember her name. . ."

Can I still be in your pictures?

In the middle of nowhere, outside Tucumcari, we see an apparition, a woman by the side of the road. We stop and back up to where she stands beside a small suitcase, watching us.

The universe was cubicle, mall-shaped

He searched for something deserving of the word “bestowed,” something so rare as to horrify the clerics of ordinariness.

The first thing I saw was a sandal, but it didn't exactly look priestly. It was golden and glowing, and the foot it was strapped to had red painted nails. The straps wrapped around her ankles, and up her slender leg, tied off in a bow below the knee.

Eretorua –somewhere in the land of the Māori

tentacles opened the stage for this common February day to the fidgety audience at hand but it appears they won't grab on. The now familiar grumpy wind with its constantly runny nose and filthy hands sagging from inside its hanging by a torn…

My husband Gordon looked as though he'd found religion -- as though he'd never tasted real food before this beef stew meal at Angie and Ron's. He appeared to be sucking his teeth after every bite, taking his time, thinking about what he'd sucked -- then…