“Robots cannot be trusted,” hollered the man dressed as a Geisha woman. He stood wide-legged and barefoot atop the makeshift stage, braced only on cement blocks, in the garage behind Pegasus Records in Florence, Alabama. A fog machine and cheap lights strung behind him set the mood as he and his band offered sermons of sorts between their songs. “Jump ropes are detrimental to our youth,” he […]
I’ve little to say to you; I’m still finding new places to hide. You lurk in the middle of the room, oblivious to your harm, and I find myself in the shadows, hoping you do not see me. Our roles seem reversed to anyone who does not know to be afraid […]
Strike the soft skin of your children; leave marks. Go on: show them how hard they must become to be like you. Mold them to be mindless: coach them to react with fists; make them believe that words have little worth. Shape them into an almighty monster: modern man. Destroy their purity and imagination by damning them with absurd words of a god who previous men imagined. […]
Rain taps on the tin roof and I am in an unlit room not thinking of you. The air is cold, not like winter; it feels like your arms when they’re not wrapped across my ribs, your hand curling next to my lips, catching my more quiet breaths. 1:24 AM – the clock sits on the table next to the right side of my bed, where you slept. […]
I forget my reasons for staying, saying instead it’s what’s right– wrong, again. Again, I swallow it all: the anger, the regret. But it won’t stay down, as I do. It rises, likes the hot air you speak, corrodes the ceiling, takes my breath, leaves me gasping, choking on what you could not swallow. The indignant, after all, have no room for their own mistakes. […]
On Preparing For A Date I Don’t Care To Go On I debate with myself how to dress: casually, so as to hint at my lack of interest; or with care, to show him the shape of my body — the one he won’t be touching. Rachel Nix is from Northwest Alabama. Despite an irrational fear of frogs, she’s declared herself pretty content with living in the boonies. […]
Melancholy Hyperbole 