Stellwagen Bank

 

Grey sky meets gun-metal ocean. Due east, off the bow of the vessel, black mounds rise. We expect smooth rubber, but their backs are rough, edged in barnacles and swirls carved from oceanic ordeals. We hear the pop of beer bottles, but foam spurts instead from surfacing blowholes. Captured in the fog that embraces our boat, old sardines and fermented seaweed swamp nostrils ill-prepared for the stench of whales. A spout of fetid water arcs into the air. We laugh, cough in uncomfortable delight. They begin to sound. Suspended in our peculiar conceits, we wait for the slap of flukes.

 

100 words for the resurrected

101 Fiction: Entanglement

It's March, and there's a new issue of 101Fiction with thirteen stories on the theme of green.

"A tiny quantum of green fiction," says editor John Xero about mine.

101 Fiction: Entanglement

101 Fiction: Redundancy

Thrilled to be part of 101Fiction's December issue.

All about black and white

101 Fiction: Redundancy

I know I always say this: translation soon...

Since You’ve Been Gone

 I am looking very carefully through the tall grass. The path goes from the garage to the well, and the key is gold. If I don’t find the key, I will have to ask the neighbor to saw the bolt. The bolt is expensive, and the neighbor has an unappealing gleam in his eye. I have not replaced the stolen chainsaw, which is not the proper saw for cutting bolts in any case. I may as well look for the washer that fell off the hose, a small, black rubber ring. Meanwhile, I just missed stepping in wild boar dung.

  

“If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalogue.”

-Sears, Roebuck, and Co., Consumer's Guide, 1897

 Quote given for the weekend 100-word at Light and Shade Challenge