28 Word Story 31: Prayers

In this country, cracks sound like blood. In this country, our eyes open to our hot, calloused palms. Our dim prayers fall like rain to the dirty ground.

28 Word Story 30: Impact

She stumbled to avoid the impact. He grinned crookedly. “What are you doing?” “The force of you is a gale to me,” she murmured, gazing into the ground.

28 Word Story 29: Singer

The singer poses perched on the edge of his rooftop, pouring his open mouth into the hanging, swaying sky. Small people on the ground look up and cluck.

28 Word Story 28: Above

The creature rippled through branches above his head. “I want to see you,” he called. The motion halted. A harsh giggle resounded, then dissipated into his thin sigh.

28 Word Story 27: Here

The boy crouched in the intersection. A gauzy film of dust hadn’t yet dissipated from the traffic lights. “Would you look at that?” He chuckled. “We’re still here.”

28 Word Story 26: Trust

“So,” she shrugged, “I decided not to trust her.”
“You can do that?” My eyes rounded, dry-wide.
“Honey,” she chuckled, rasping, “you can do anything you want.”

28 Word Story 25: Corner

She’s crumpled in the corner. She rubs her hands together. Sometimes, shadows toss coins while passing. No grim smile crosses her by; she just keeps rubbing her hands.

28 Word Story 24: Explosion

Explosion: harsh sounds rush through trees like fast hands hitting hard against drying leaves. We try to whisper softer than the worms as they ooze under smoking ground.

28 Word Story 23: Sea-girl

She sashays by, brows knotted and hands knitting the air, fraught with wishing. In her wake, curious necks swivel and sway, pliable as seaweed. She sinks. Envy froths.

28 Word Story 22: Wish

He eased back, into cold wet grass. “Would you look at that?”
Her eyes followed his, along the path of the star that scraped across the velvet sky.

28 Word Story 21: Weapons

Father tugged her tearstained face up.
“Maisie--you have the greatest weapons, right in this bedroom.”
She spent the night rummaging for anything sharp besides pens and paintbrushes.

28 Word Story 20: Plans

“Oh, I've got plans, doll. Just you wait.”
While he hoisted his leg up, his crutch clattered to the ground and knocked the dim bar into silence.
“Goddammit.”

28 Word Story 19: Drown

I’m holding tight my breath--so before I finally sink, (my heart will beat so fast,) the chatter in my chest will make it seem you never left.

28 Word Story 18: Wait

Fear curdles and thickens, oozing like milk through her spongy bones. She waits for fist to crash through window. Hours rub the sky brighter. Daylight stains the horizon.

28 Word Story 17: Hope

Mrs. Jennifer is in love with the man who slices the deli ham. She waves a frail, arthritic hand. Blushing pink ribbons flop and curl on the counter.

28 Word Story 16: Revenge

His throat is worn ragged by the moon. “We’re ready,” he murmurs to the bed-ridden body. Razors skim his shins. Old, rotted fury dances on his bones.

28 Word Story 15: Beg

“Help me feel alive again.”
Your voice is gray, but your eyes scramble. Your thumbs beat fast against the threadbare carpet. Smoke plumes and collects in cobwebbed corners.

28 Word Story 14: Dream

Hornets howled like wolves. Fingers clattered, shattering in shards. I kissed your bitten mouth, but you were already falling, dissolving. I wake with eyelids full and buttoned shut.

28 Word Story 13: Car

Your hand flopped bonelessly against the slate. Your accordion ribcage wheezed a sultry tune. Your eyes spun like kaleidoscopes--displaced gems tumbled. You didn't even feel the crash.

28 Word Story 12: Until

Night settled into the trees, nestling between branches and curling into the changing leaves. A boy, perched on his window ledge, hummed soft tones into a dying phone.

28 Word Story 11: Lost

They whispered that you were doomed. You’d never find anybody to love you, they cackled. You shrugged. You ripped the tree bark like a dress and slipped in.

28 Word Story 10: Flowers

Bartleby shuffled along the meadow. The flowers seemed to smile cheerily as he passed. As he traveled, however, their grins shifted into leers, fangs exposed in merry sunlight.

28 Word Story 9: Circumstance

He‘d never suspected that one shrill, blurted word could change his life so thoroughly. And of all words, he mused. He gripped the windowsill’s edge. His legs dangled.

28 Word Story 8: Race

Each step snapped leaves. “I’m giving up.” Her red braid whipped as she knelt in his path. “You can’t.” He yanked her up by the shoulders. “You’ll die.”

28 Word Story 7: Escaped

The shattered window’s edges glint, wet and red as tongues.
Puckered notepaper bears black-ink marks, pocking the surface like tears: “Why won’t you tell me the truth?”

28 Word Story 6: Storm

Rain slides down glass like fingernails down necks. I remember: charcoal marked walls and bruise-hued sheets. Thinking of you wrinkles my forehead and notches my lower lip.

28 Word Story 5: Drunk

Saturated mother swings giddy circles. Her “sweetheart-baby-darling-girl” glares up from a sheet of uncut hair. Bruises etch under her eyes, but you can’t see them.

28 Word Story 4: But

“They love you.” Thin smirk flashes wan.
“I know;” weighted pause, “but…”
“What?” Flash eager, hungry eyes.
Bitten lip; whisper drips: “But they can’t tell I’ve been lying.”

28 Word Story 3: Sorry

"I didn't mean to hurt her." His huff of hot breath blows currents in rough dust. Machines loom, hunched like sad teenage boys--vast shoulders; sharp, crooked limbs.

28 Word Story 2: Mountain

A rogue blister tore. Pebbles scampered off the precipice. Echoes away, straw haired dogs howled. We held wet, salty hands as the sun grinned benignly. “We made it.”

28 Word Story 1: Show

Rain plummets hard as rabbits. Top-hatted you: sawed me in two with your tricks. Tonight when the curtain draws, I’ll fall like a scarf from your sleeve.