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Proof’s Hammer
January 9, 2010 in 299 Words, Business, Class Work, Education, Fiction, Flash Fiction, language, Philosophy, School, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: language, Philosophy, School, Threat, Work | 9 comments
Black and White each had doubts that the other existed, but for White the question had consequences. Read the rest of this entry »
Clarity
August 27, 2009 in 299 Words, Business, Fiction, Flash Fiction, language, Mind, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Computers, Madness, Mathematics, Obsession, Patterns, Reason | 13 comments
The Computative Assistant to the Acting Vice-Director of Apportionment Compliance for the local subdistrict stopped counting. For an hour he did nothing but stare at his screen and its pattern of numbers that veiled the white certainty beyond. Read the rest of this entry »
Two Giraffes
November 3, 2008 in 299 Words, Church, Disability, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Health, How-To, language, Literature, Love, Memory, Music, novels, Religion, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | 8 comments
He’s never done me any good, as far as I can tell, nor any harm. I hope He’s as ambivalent about me. We’re at Halloween mass and the children have come as animals from the ark. Read the rest of this entry »
Feeling the Feeling I Felt
April 7, 2008 in 299 Words, Art, Books, Entertainment, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Humor, language, Literature, Love, Marriage, Poetry, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Art, Beauty, Bed, Hope, language, Love, Marriage, Poetry, Sex, Touch, translation | 7 comments
The next day, I understood French. Standing by the curb in my bathrobe and slippers on a frosty morning, looking for the paper in the shrubs, I saw the sparkling blades of grass and heard the crystals crunch beneath my feet in a suburb of a suburb of New York City—all right, Jersey— Read the rest of this entry »
20% More Synonymous
March 22, 2008 in 299 Words, Books, Business, Dictionary, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, language, Marriage, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Ambiguity, Deeds, Hope, language, Loss, Love, Lovers, Mystery, Phone, Separation, Threat | 4 comments
When I’ve finished writing my dictionary, things will be different in this world among English-speaking people and between you and me. When we first learned them, words were something hefty we could thrump with our knuckles the way we test a melon. Read the rest of this entry »
Money Talks
March 20, 2008 in 299 Words, Business, Entertainment, Fiction, Flash Fiction, How-To, Humor, language, Money, Politics, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Madness, Money, Touch, Yearning | 11 comments
So many words are already written on a dollar bill, it hardly needs more language from me, words as evocative as God and Trust, as if heaven had to sanction my buying a croissant, beautiful words though, about my public and private debts. Read the rest of this entry »
Something Like Mercy
February 14, 2008 in 299 Words, Death, Eternity, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Funeral, Humor, language, Literature, Memory, Poetry, Religion, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Death, Epiphany, Eulogy, Funeral, Grave, Hope, Mercy, Monologue | 7 comments
The box is richly padded and, for one who won’t be stirring, roomy. I should have lived as comfortably, in darkness as conducive to long remembering. This is no way to begin. I am paper and bone in a box under earth as blunt as a clod. My words should be simple as sand. Read the rest of this entry »
Heart Is Killing
December 20, 2007 in 299 Words, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, Immigrant, language, novels, Separation, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Family, Immigrant, language, Separation, translation, Yearning | 5 comments
Dear mother, father dear sisters, dear wife, babies I am not sadness dying. That pain does not kill me. The stronger is making me I am sure when I work too long if I will ever come back. You send me everything from your letters that home is new. You are spending my money I hope. Read the rest of this entry »
Bridge Toll
September 24, 2007 in 299 Words, Family, Fiction, Flash Fiction, language, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Car, Father, Regret, School, Son | 7 comments
My son’s a nice enough kid, I suppose, flaky as all get-out, but a hard worker when he sets his mind to something, which is the problem. I offered him a way into the business, but he never cracked the binder. Plus, he qualified for military officer training, but he went kamikaze on his interview. Read the rest of this entry »
Swallowing Light Bulbs
July 9, 2007 in 299 Words, Fiction, Flash Fiction, language, Literature, Short stories, Stories, Very Short Novels, Writing | Tags: Destiny, language, Performance | 14 comments
He wasn’t always the man who swallows light bulbs. He did at one time have an act. Like many others, it amounted to filling in blanks: an adjective noun of noun and adjective noun, it verbed across the noun when the noun was adverb, but when it fell, it fell like a load of bricks. Read the rest of this entry »
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