Nate and I were in a band together throughout high school — screamo with keyboards.

I dreamed my brother gave his dog to a friend in New York
who could better care for... more

A city wide boil advisory is still out. Brain eating amoebas were detected in the tap.

I could never straighten my legs for a cartwheel and with roller skating, I could never move them right.

Q-tips were her guilty pleasure. She loved the feel of them caressing her inner ear, reaching the itch she could otherwise not scratch.... more

If I’m going to be honest, my life has been running at something of a parallel to Husker Football for the last ten years, over which time I’ve tried to hack it as a musician, restaurateur, and writer.

A Flash Book Review of ‘50 Barn Poems’ and Brief Interview with Zac Smith

We heard something Anglo, unhinged, too human. We’d been hoping for Shrimp killing Cow or Cow killing Shrimp, but it was you, Bitcha, flailing and teetering about in the night sky.

My mother once jumped off a boat into a swarm of jellyfish. Why did she think they would not sting?

Sometimes, he gives me tips. Most of the time, it is this: “Take your time.”

I awoke no more than ten minutes ago and already so much has been consumed

Toward the end, when heart disease had already taken my father, and my mother was alone—which she found intolerable—her doctors felt she had... more

She had us trade cardigans. She said it was an exercise in empathy. 

I used to write in circles. Starting in the center.

Part 1 of 4
Part 2 of 4
Part 3 of 4

Apart from all these violent... more

You, Drawing

Urgent and hawkish, 
savage man strokes
skirr from your pen;
determined bold... more

He was in love with his friend Faye, had known her since elementary school.

If you get this far, that means that things are all, more or less, going according to plan.

Silver Dollar

i toss humpback salmon from my thumb like silver dollars, listen for the splash of them... more

I was only doing what she asked:  Not listening. 

The Christian Movie Theatre is mainly for fans of poorly translated morality tales, the violent ends of saints and so forth.

My body is uncomplicated. It is a tool, finely tuned for this moment.

Despite your better judgement, you click on his profile and then on the most recent post: a picture of him smiling on a white slope with his arm wrapped around a remarkably average, yet still somehow traditionally hot (not pretty, just hot) snow bunny.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Wedding

1.    The bride was beautiful. 

2.    The bride was... more