Veronica Klash wrote an awesome review of Flash Fiction over at FracturedLit called

5 Flash that Will Break You & 5 Flash that Will Repair You

Girls of the Arboretum was in the Top 5 Stories that will Repair you. Check the review out at FracturedLit or read the full story at XRAY:

Girls of the Arboretum

 

Related Reading:

1. Ordering Fries at Happy Hour by Christopher Gonzalez at OkayDonkey
2. Between the Liking and the Pretending by Cathy Ulrich at Ghost Parachute
3. Dark Woods by Harris Lahti in XRAY

 

 

Like many, I’ve been struggling to find a way to be creative lately. Today I wrote for the first time in a month and it felt wonderful. The words didn’t matter, they weren’t great but they were a beginning of something. It was prompted by listening to the new Fiona Apple album, “Fetch The Bolt Cutters”.

In college, I’d fall asleep listening to Fiona on my beat up portable CD player. She was angry and so was I although I couldn’t always say why. I’m angry now, too. It feels good to connect my feelings to music in a way that feels healthy.

So, I made a mixed tape. If you have Amazon Prime, you are welcome to use it:

Bri’s Apcalyptic Pop-tail

327 songs. Over 22 hours of music. On Shuffle All, here is a sample:

1. Annihilation – A Perfect Circle
2. Hardest of Hearts – Florence and The Machine
3. Flesh and Bone – Johnny Cash
4. Little Wing – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
5. This is What Makes Us Girls – Lana del Rey
6. Nara – Alt J
7. Rock-n-Roll Suicide – David Bowie
8. Mississippi Goddam (Live at Carnegie Hall 1964) – Nina Simone
9. Criminal – Fiona Apple
10. Michigan – The Milk Cart Kids
11. Oh! You Pretty Things – David Bowie
12. Operator – Jim Croce
13. Cocoa Hooves – Glass Animals
14. The First Taste – Fiona Apple
15. Under The Table – Fiona Apple
16. Cornflake Girl – Tori Amos
17. It Was A Good Day – Ice Cube
18. Cannonball – The Breeders
19. Broadripple is Burning – Margot and The Nuclear So & Sos
20. Hospital Beds – The Cold War Kids
21. Down With The Sickness – Disturbed
22. Its Oh So Quiet – Bjork
23. Buddy Holly – Weezer
24. This is How We Do It – Montell Jordan
25. Die Eier Von Satan – Tool
26. Every Day is Exactly The Same – Nine Inch Nails
27. Manic Depression – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
28. London Calling – The Clash
29. Space Dog – Tori Amos
30. Here Comes The Sun – Nina Simone
31. Heads Will Roll – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
32. Juice – Lizzo
33. Should I Stay or Should I Go – The Clash
34. Closer – Nine Inch Nails
35. God – Tori Amos
36. The Nurse Who Loved Me – A Perfect Circle
37. O’Sailor – Fiona Apple
38. The Man Who Sold The World – David Bowie
39. Crucify – Tori Amos
40. Fetch The Bolt Cutters – Fiona Apple

 

Headphones Photo by Malte Wingen on Unsplash

You Are What You Listen To Photo by Mohammad Metri on Unsplash

Mixed Tape Photo by Namroud Gorguis on Unsplash

 

 

 

 

I wrote a poem comprised entirely of subject lines from SPAM emails I got this week. It’s a quick capture of my life in quarantine, maybe. Or, my longing for a burrito that I didn’t make myself.

National Burrito Day

Mostly its just nonsense which is OK right now, right?

 

“Make Salsa Not War” Photo by Victor Garcia on Unsplash

“Open” Photo by Mike Petrucci on Unsplash

” Burritos” Photo by Krzysztof Hepner on Unsplash

My short story, “Emergency Escape Plan” (originally published February 9, 2018 at Bending Genres) has been selected for the 2018 | 2019 Bending Genres Anthology edited by Robert Vaughan. This volume is a collection of 100 amazing authors (or…like…99 and then also me) and 250 pages of hybrid creative nonfiction, flash fiction and poetry.

It is available for purchase at Bending Genres Press: The Bending Genres Anthology 2018 – 2019: $19.95 (ships in Mid-March) 

Featuring:

Abby Burns and Ade Toke and Alina Stefanescu and Andrew Hahn and Andrew Stancek and Anne Summerfield and Babak Lakghomi and Ben Kline and Benjamin Niespodziany and Brad Rose and Brett Pribble and Brianne Kohl and Cameron Morse and Cathy Ulrich and Chad Lutz and Christine Baerbock and Christopher Bowen and Claire Polders and Constance Malloy and D.S. Maolalai and David Spicer and E. Kristin Anderson and Emily Bertholf and Emily Hoover and Eric Lewis and Erin Anderson and Francine Witte and Freda Epum and Gail Gauthier and Gale Acuff and Gay Degani and Gaynor Jones and Genia Blum and Georgiana Nelsen and Hanna Barry Black and Hannah Cohen and Heidi Neff and Hillary Leftwich and Howie Good and J. Marasa and J. Tarwood and Jacqueline Doyle and Jalayna Carter and James McAdams and Jan Saenz and Jane-Rebecca Cannarella and Jayne Martin and Jeff Porter and Jen Todhunter and Jenn Lee and Jennifer Vanderheyden and Jill Talbot and John Brantingham and John Gray and Jonathan Riccio and Jose Aseguero and Joshua Baker and Jules Archer and Kaj Tanaka and Karen Schauber and Kate Murfett and Katherine Gleason and Kathryn de Lancellotti and Kathryn Kulpa and Kim Magowan and Kirsten Kaschock and Kristen Havens and Kristin Tenor and Kristina Ten and L. Mari Harris and Laura Heckel and Lauren Busser and Lee Patterson and Len Kuntz and Lucinda Kempe and Lucy Zhang and Luke Johnson and Martha Kaplan and Mary Thompson and Matthew Dexter and Meg Pokrass and Michael Grant Smith and Michelle Ko and Michelle Ross and Nancy Iannucci and Nancy Mitchell and Nancy Stohlman and Pique Allens and Rachel Laverdiere and Rachel Tanner and Riham Adly and Robert Scotellaro and Rogan Kelly and Ruth Ticktin and Ryan Skaryd and S. Leavesly and Sam Rasnake and Samina Hadi-Tabassum and Sara Comito and Sara Kuntsler and Sherre Vernon and Shome Dasgupta and Shoshauna Shy and Steven John and Suvi Mahonen and Tara Campbell and Thomas Ferriello and Timothy Liu and Tom Block and Tommy Dean and Vox Populi and Wendy Chirikos and Wendy Oleson and William Soldan and Woody Woodger

 

The girls feel his gaze like the silk of the webworm. He defoliates them with his eyes. When he approaches, the girls become deer, tip top white tails, thin legs. They fall to all fours and scatter…

Girls of the Arboretum published at X-R-A-Y

 

Related Reading:

• I Know All About Combustion by Allie Marini
• She Doesn’t Anymore by Cathy Ulrich
• Lines So Sharp by Tommy Dean

The bullet is a seed born of human tissue.

It grows like a weed in clumps, in clips, in high capacity magazines.

The Montana Gold 55 grain full metal jacket, a .22 caliber bullet, is an annual. Designed for small caliber high velocity firearms like the AR-15, it is wind-pollinated.

The fields of your community are germinated by seeds grown far away.

The fruit of these seeds will exceed supersonic speed at 500 yards. They fire in both semi-automatic and fully automatic use — at an outdoor concert, for instance, or 3rd period study hall.

Hear the tink as seeds hit the concrete walls of a cafeteria, a school desk, or the metal arms of the monkey bars. Hear the sighs as they settle in and plant themselves at your feet.

Dandelions

Photo Attribution:

“Dandelions” by Subash BGK is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

“I told him to leave me alone. I didn’t even have a voice yet and I said it. My voice was nothing but a whistle coming from the old radiator heater along the big dusty windows. But, still, I said it. I bit my thumb at him. Every silent moment, he whispered my name. A Romeo crooning to Juliet, “You fucking pig.””

Romeo Gleeting

I enjoy whipping this one out every year:

Is Your Body Beach Ready? From the archives via Fit Yourself Club.

#BodyandMind