There is something coiling its way around my heart.

Not necessarily sinister in nature, but I am leery of it.

It has not made its intentions known as of yet, but I can tell it will soon.

It could very well be a monster of some sort. I can feel its hot breath
on the back of my neck. Waiting for the right moment to pounce.

Anticipatory, even.

Something must break. It always has to happen that way. Nothing will change,
until
something gets broken. Otherwise, there is no room in here for anything new.

Secretly, I love this feeling.

Fortune – Jessica Otto

She looked at the hairline cracks in your shoulder blade, breathed
through the creaking flesh that stretches across your knuckles.  She
gave you strong sake and a bowl of edamame which you did not eat but
emptied into the handkerchief I gave you, that you never use.  Now I
hold out my hand.  She said the cicadas will not sprout for another
century.  Sea salt crusts upon the cotton as I lift a bean pod to my
mouth and split green in my teeth.  One hundred years of good fortune
froth forth as I sip the sake on your breath.

Hear me now – Ani Smith

Inasmuch as I think I shouldn’t speak, I think you shouldn’t speak either.
When it comes to talking, only one of us can deliver the speech that neither
of us wants to hear. When it comes to telling my dear, you’re telling me
things I never longed to hear. But oh me, I am saying nothing. My mouth’s
fly is open, my tongue is lolling like a soft pink blob on an inner tube
floating on the sea of my face. I am like a cardiac arrest patient on crack
but you keep talking. My god, you keep talking.

Bean Casings – Jeff Chon

Someone had sprayed diarrhea on the Men’s room floor.  We had to clean it up because we were the only guys working.   Through the opened door, the smell backdrafted into our faces.  I staggered, smothered like the naked, Napalmed Vietnamese girl from that photo, and puked in the hall.  Chuckie said to clean up the puke and he’d start inside.

I dropped the sawdust and began to mop.  I’ll never forget what I saw in that split second from the doorway—curdled and tan on the tile, empty bean casings floating like beetle husks.

I wasn’t going back in there.

Things I learned from my inbox today – Shannon Peil

Viagra and Cialis are on sale. I can get them shipped for low low prices from Canada. Hot chicks want to hook up with me on the facebook of sex. My teeth need whitened. Someone regrets to inform me that my work is not suitable for their publication, but wish me luck in the future. I need a bigger, more erect penis. Apparently I write decent stuff, but should refrain from swearing so much. Viagra and Cialis are still on sale, but I need to act soon. And thank god I inherited some money from Africa, I really need it.

Sui Caedere – David Milano

Blade held in right hand, left clenched in fist. This is how they would find
her; dead, arm in bucket, drained. All for the best, she thought. Deep
breath. Slashing. Didn’t hurt. Wasn’t sure she’d actually cut until blood
started gushing. Quick glance down, saw the wound open. Light headed. Her
heart pounding. Blood flowing. Hot panic flashed across her mind. A film ran
of what life could have been. Then everything went dark.

She awoke hours later, lying on the floor. Arm caked with dried blood. Must
have passed out. Hoarse laugh, morbid joke. Couldn’t even get that right.

She never knows what to expect. The ad says, handsome, discreet. He
smiles and there’s a flash of silver at one side. It gets her hot knowing
this man lost a tooth and replaced it with silver. She leads him to the
kitchen. Here? He asks and she nods. It was used for little else. Afterwards
he asks to see her again and she gestures in a half-hearted way at the
spotless pots and pans.

Delusion – Jessica Otto

The galleon called Delusion swims through the mouse hole and into the
stagnant harbor.  Midnight’s fog rolled with it, weaving a mirage of
nereids; green skinned and draped in ragged sail cloth, dancing up and
down across the bow, swinging from the naked figurehead.   They come
from coral hills peppered with bodies tied to grounded masts, limbs
long pulped by the waves.  A green star falls and smolders in the
waves.  Another ghost, I think.

Socrates Adams

I am sitting in sunlight in a park on a bench. It is a bright day in the
park. The bench underneath me is in the park which I am sitting in. It is
great to have sunlight shining on my face while I am in the park. The park
has a bench in it which I am sitting on. I am shot through the head by a
bullet fired from a powerful sniper rifle.

Shannon Peil

Waking up in a coffin, presumably under layers of dirt, oxygen preservation
became my number one priority. I try to put aside anger at the people
who buried me – despite just being really sleepy and not actually deceased -
and attempt to regulate my breathing. Next, I pull my shirt up over my head
like a bag to keep from breathing in dirt while I punch my way through the
cheap fiberboard. Then, anger.

Our Similarities, Our Differences – Chloe Caldwell

I am sitting in the sun outside of Café Fiore. A woman is sitting next to me
in the same legs crossed position. We both have on jeans and hats with blond
hair underneath them. We both sip out of our paper cups. She’s reading ‘Our
Babies, Our Bodies.’ I’m reading ‘The Diary of A Sex Fiend.’ She’s pregnant.
I have Plan B in my purse. I quickly swallow my pills with my coffee.

© Jessica Otto, 2010