“Ada wondered that herons could tolerate each other close enough to breed. She had seen a scant number in her life, and those so lonesome as to make the heart sting on their behalf. Everywhere they were seemed far from home.”—Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain The heron held in the shadows, her long legs […]
Browsing Category: Short Story
Short Story
LATE
He watched as she readied her children for church, the attention and care she put into their dress, hair, presentability; licking her fingers and smoothing wildness in son’s hair by combing it with touch back to cultivated order. Her studied her, in her own dismissing of self in service to her children, another […]
Short Story
PURIFIED SOUL
“…the whole framework of the universe does homage and service to him who thus purifies and sanctifies his senses.”—Saint Bonaventure, The Life of St. Francis of Assisi They read the quote beneath a sky of stars, the Milky Way as backdrop shadow-light behind nearer stars arranged into near dreams and constellations shaped with accompanied […]
Short Story
DROUGHT
The sky shone blue but in the fire of summer sun, too long since rain, burned hot and harsh without wind. Ryan was already sweating, and staring on the world, all he could see were sign of settling drought as the means to a livelihood went dormant or outright died. It was all […]
Short Story
A HEART BENEATH A STONE
“There are some touching illusions which are, perhaps, sublime realities.”—Victor Hugo, Les Miserables A HEART BENEATH A STONE “The reduction of the universe to a single being, the expansion of a single being even to God, that is love. Love is the salutation of the angels to the stars. How sad is […]
Short Story
ON MOUNTAIN’S TOP
“Sharpen your sight, Reader: the truth, this time, is covered by a thinning veil, and so, the meaning should be easy to perceive.” —Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Purgatory, Canto VII, lines 19-21. “I’m reading it all again,” Ryan shared. “I finished Vita Nuova and began The Diving Comedy yesterday. I didn’t sleep well […]
Short Story
GOOD AT BAT
The father watched his son from the stands. In the at bat, his son fouled seven pitches away, watched two balls outside the strike zone pass, then struck out swinging on a fastball high and outside—a good pitch and one the boy, given the count, had to go for. It was a […]
Short Story
WORLD ON FIRE
I still see them as we found them, the first torn open with pattern of punctures from M-240 impacts, small holes in front that blew open in back; further effect of burst tearing and leaving neck opened wide. Blood was everywhere, most dark and some still bright when we reached him. You could read […]
Short Story
ENDEARMENT
He spoke to his angel. “I’m out of words,” he shared. “I have nothing left to tell. The dream is gone.” “It was a good run!” his angel answered mirthful in reply, “…but I don’t believe you. If you are empty, I will miss your writing. I will miss existence […]
Short Story
LOVE IN THE RAIN
The front showed in bands across the western sky, cream wisp of clouds above shadow underside of storm, their contrast lighted sharp by the rising eastern sun. Sky weighed cool and damp with the scent of humus—spring’s living earth disturbed, trodden, and cloven between hooves into mud beneath ranging cattle—holding in its air. […]