Chas thought of himself as a plainspoken guy. It bugged him when Diane used language tricks—metaphors, maxims, things like that—especially when she used them to make points during a spat. Diane’s “sayings,” he called them.
Read MoreI am beside the green woods, the saplings.
You would not know me.
This heron – hunched atop a power pole two hours south of Palamos- She does not belong here. Jackrabbits, yes, bounders. In the mornings they lick dew from prickly pears. Coyotes, thin and hot and brown as wind....
Read MoreFrom birth her tongue was thick,
Speaking was pain, was muddy.
Strapped onto a booster seat, Billy fidgeted and kicked, struggling to get down. Annie giggled and drenched her plate in maple syrup. Mother, with downcast eyes and trembling hands, lifted a coffee cup to her lips. Father, reading a newspaper, sopped up runny egg yolk with a corner of his triangle-cut toast. I sat frozen, wondering when the bad man would burst out again.
Read MoreNothing makes us flare up like talk
Of hope, the talk of peonies and yellow
Daffodils alive in spring
“Hush, Elsie,” said Mother, entering our room and joining us at the window. In her hands were pieces of charcoal and our sketch pads; “Your teacher has travelled all over Europe. She will share her knowledge and expertise. I expect you to be courteous even if she may be a bit… eccentric.”
Read Moreif it’s to be a
girl child then
they choose not
cressida, nor
jezebel, nor
Vince Natale Vince Natale has been creating illustrations and fine art professionally since...
Read MoreCigarette smoke curls toward the ceiling
framing Eve as she stares from her outpost,
a stare detached from her fragile frame.
She turns to go back. Then she stops again to look at him. Somehow he knows she understands what he’s been through, where he has been, what he has seen. And so when the line he is in moves forward, he moves forward with it.
Read MoreWe watch the effect of a healthy gust
as it catches my hat that dances and plays
on surface ripples.
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