For no obvious reason the cat paws at the framed painting on the wall of the den in the corner behind a tall bedraggled plant and beside a Tiffany lamp. They’ve now had to take down most framed pictures from… Read More ›
Creative Nonfiction
Post to 1970s me
I want the innocence of the 1970s again. Of rollerskating to disco music as a kid. Roller coasters, carnival food, the Jersey shore. Fireworks displays, sidewalk chalk, the ice cream man. I miss the feel of an old phone, a… Read More ›
Not being high at the Habit burger restaurant
Back when I got high I sometimes wondered what it would be like to not get high when I was getting high. Like could the indescribable quality of this world be perceived otherwise? I never thought it could be and… Read More ›
Your portion of life on a plate
When we got the warning about a violent storm coming we drove to the store for ice cream and organic cheese puffs and gas for the generator in case the power went out. I had gotten the blue light pre-cancer… Read More ›
The you you are now
Sometimes when I’m walking the trail in the early morning dark I’ll sense motion and realize there’s a large deer crossing my path. Dawn said there’s been coyotes attacking people in Bellevue and I should carry a cudgel. Maybe a… Read More ›
Indefinite loop
2023 By the time spring started I hadn’t worked for four months. There’d been a short gig in December but prior to that, nothing since June. The agency I contract with slows down in the summer as their primary client… Read More ›
Come on Eileen
Now in this corner of the night it is all quiet save for the sound of music coming from the end of the hall. A song from the 80s with a fiddle, a song they played while Lily was visiting…. Read More ›
The better together speech, 1984
The way the clouds pass across the sky and stretch like see-through gauze through my window. Stretching back to another time. Stumbling onto the stage and crossing it as a 14-year-old. Dropping my speech, the papers scattering across the floor,… Read More ›
Self-updating systems
I folded myself back into the routine of work. I hadn’t billed a full 40 hours since last July, eight months. What did Lily mean when she said she disassociated? I sometimes got flickers of that and liked it. It… Read More ›
One more wish
That was it. Sometimes I could see how the rest of my life would play out by the way it was going day by day. We watched the sequel to Dune, that world’s lore, the large underground worms and the… Read More ›
Bill Pearse 