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III
Three hundred years ago. The planet seems more or less fine. It’s got the typical pollutants. The population, according to disparate experts, is somehow both bursting at the seams and heading towards zero – and fast. Technology has reached unprecedented levels of efficiency, self-sustainability, and parody. No one uses even twenty five percent of the…
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II
There’s always at least one. And one is all it takes. From there it’s simply dominoes and what we call momentum. Lefty ran with the gun in his waistband and his shirt wrapped around his head to soak up the ravenous sun. It was hungry today. It was hungry everyday. Before his birth – before…
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blessed are
And a voice speaking from the grey, “These are my beloved masses! my huddled addicts! my infernal fabric, a tapestry of the shafted! my sick and lonely captives! my – ” “Sorry, what?” Jesus turned to look at the man on the rock behind him. His skin was a pasty, translucent grey. “My…” the man…
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I
On his back in the withering grass, Lefty watched the sun slam through the home layer. Thin to the point of vanishing. Everything. And the chant was growing louder. Sweat pushed into the fabric of Lefty’s tunic – for years already stained – and into the mesh confines of his wrong glove. He began to…
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A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
the family // pre-miracle ‘Twas the night. That means dark. That means smoldering embers in the ashtray. That means alien glow of the late night news flickering off the ceiling. That means more questions than answers in a room full of empty. And the glass coffee table stained and telling. Crumbs scattered, uncharted constellations shimmering…
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knees
Knees upon earth. Knees upon cobblestones. Knees upon cold, ceramic tiles and carpets and knees upon the rocky banks of a trickling creek. Knees upon hopes and dreams. Knees upon grassy knolls and knees upon snow, cold and wishing. Knees upon concrete. Knees upon hospital linoleum. Knees upon the torn battlefields of love and war…
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DEAR MATTHEW
in conversation with my mind • after reading Piranesi Dear Matthew, Your face has returned, without its familiarity. I held your hands six weeks ago, and I felt only the coldest kind of history coursing underneath your marble skin: apathy. Do you wear this stone identity in mourning for your precious statues? A time to…
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CONCRETE
Zodiac lived in a concrete world. And so did everybody else. His teachers told him, “That’s the thing about concrete.” He asked, “What’s the thing?” And they shrugged because they didn’t actually know. But Zodiac had a feeling. He had a fleeting thought of a feeling. He had the suspicion of a fleeting thought of…
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a neighbor
Sometimes when Jesus told stories, Peter closed his eyes. Time slowed down. The story came with images in his mind. The man lost consciousness when they broke his arm. At first, he thought he might be able to talk his way out of it. Before they broke his arm. He thought maybe he could just…
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A BETTER FATE
Sophie stirred her coffee. It was pretty bad. Behind her, hundreds of the desperate and decaffeinated regulars crashed in and out of the café. Below her, over the railing, she could watch the frantic rat race of central station. She wasn’t really watching though. Her focus had drifted a while ago. She was in that…