• About
  • Contact
  • Nominations
  • Submit

Spelk

~ Short, sharp flash fiction

Spelk

Tag Archives: Y.M.C.A.

Ode to Lubitsch

16 Monday Apr 2018

Posted by Spelk in Flash Fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

anger, church, dance, flash, flash fiction, gun, hate, Kevin Tosca, kid, love story, Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix, short stories, short story, show, Tai Chi, Y.M.C.A.

by Kevin Tosca

A skinny Chinese kid, five or thereabouts and wearing a black and red vest-like, robe-like garment, came tramping up the steps of Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix, pointed a black plastic gun at my forehead, nonchalantly pulled the trigger, grinned a smug, “You’re-dead” grin, then trippity tramped up the rest of the steps.

“That wasn’t a nice thing to do, was it?”

Angela hadn’t noticed the shot, but, after thinking about my question for ten seconds (a rather long reflection, if you asked me, because how can toy guns exist in the 21st century?), my wife conceded it wasn’t particularly nice.

“Thought so. I’m gonna go teach this punk wannabe a lesson.”

I must’ve sounded confident when I said that, but I wasn’t confident, I was scared and slip-sinking into a superstitious frame of mind thanks to the fake gun, the Eastern regalia, and our foolish proximity to Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix.

And even though I knew the reason why that kid had shot every last man on the steps — why he only shot the men — why, just when everything was going so well, did he have to shoot me?

Self-pity.

I luxuriated in it, added audacious doses to my fear, mixed in the anger, got the soul hot and spicy, got it to where only the tears are possible because I hate superstition, hate my susceptibility to it even more, and I fucking detested this kid for triggering it.

His mother, wearing pink pants, blue shoes, and a floral blouse (still making her look incredibly Chinese), was doing some kind of crackpot exercise meditative voodoo dance thing underneath the main, purple-hued door of the church. Maybe there is no man, I thought, no husband or father. So what? I whipped out my real gun, the one that felt so good and reassuring next to my pacifist cock.

“Do the right thing, honey,” Angela said, “but be quick about it, the show’s about to start.”

The show … A summer film. A light comedy from the late thirties en plein air, the reason we were so unwisely lounging on the steps of Notre-Dame-de-la-Croix.

I kissed her forehead and told her not to fret. Then I marched toward the kid — I climbed toward him — and he watched me march and climb, didn’t run, didn’t grin, didn’t even blink, his face a blank page, an inscrutable mask. No fear, no anger, no surprise. Nothing.

I thought: Professional amateur.

I said: “This is how it’s done.”

Blew that page-mask to pieces, smashed his toy gun beneath my boot heels so no children would ever cause such catastrophe again.

The mother danced.

An otherworldly mélange of Tai Chi and the Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”

I’m guessing she was stoned and pregnant and killing time before having to join her colleagues, les marcheuses, to work the wangs of a succession of sweaty strangers off the Boulevard de la Villette.

“That was fast,” Angela said, snuggling back onto my lap. I tucked the gun into my pants and took a swig from our bottle of Evian, popped an organic blueberry into my mouth, felt my heart calming, calming.

“It always is,” I said.

The credits and hokey, melodramatic music started up. The dream — someone else’s — began.

“I hope it’s a love story,” she whispered.

I slipped my hand below her shorts, grabbed a fistful of flesh before heading straight for paradise.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered back. “They’re all love stories.”


After a decade in Europe, Kevin Tosca now lives in Canada. Find him at www.kevintosca.com.

Advertisements

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Recent Comments

Short story sunday… on We’re Hearing Reports of an In…
Fiction Circular 2/1… on The Forgotten Man
susancarey on We’re Hearing Reports of an In…

Contributors

  • A.E. Weisgerber: Reading Games
  • A.N. Irvano: Filial
  • Abi Hynes: Visiting
  • Adam Kluger: Are You Coming, George?
  • Adam Kluger: Good Morning, Mr. Schmertz
  • Adam Kluger: The Mentor
  • Adam Lock: “A” is for Beth
  • Adam Lock: Intimacy as Currency
  • Adam Lock: With the Lights Out, It’s Less Dangerous
  • Aidan Thorn: A Conversation with a Stranger
  • Aidan Thorn: Dirty Hands
  • Aidan Thorn: Real Men
  • Ajay Patri: Rope
  • Al Kratz: I’m Trying to Tell You Something
  • Al Kratz: Next to Cleanliness
  • Alan Beard: Ice Cream
  • Alan Beard: November
  • Alex Reece Abbott: His Nirvana
  • Alex Reece Abbott: The Girl in the Kiss
  • Alicia Bakewell: Koko
  • Alison Wassell: The Identighouls
  • Amanda McLeod: On the Roof
  • Amanda Oosthuizen: The Laundry
  • Amanda Quinn: Dress Myself
  • Amanda Saint: Gooseberry
  • Amber Burke: My Last Day at MacKenzie Pestaway
  • Amy Slack: After Tonight
  • Amy Wood: The Knitter
  • Andrew Hilbert: The Grand Canyon
  • Andrew Stancek: Death Do Us Part
  • Andy Lavender: The Language of Weather
  • Angela Readman: The Man Who Won the Hemingway Championship
  • Anita Goveas: What Actually Gets You is the Rising Heat
  • Ann Zimmerman: Mice in the Attic
  • Anna Lea Jancewicz: Love in the Time of Expectoration
  • Anna Nazarova-Evans: Crossing the Line
  • Anne Goodwin: Ghost Girl
  • Anne Goodwin: I Want Doesn’t Get
  • Anne Summerfield: The Woman Who Gave Birth to a Bat
  • Annelise Altman: Grass
  • Annie Dawid: Espresso Induces
  • Annie Dawid: Love Letter to Doctor Burns
  • Annie Dawid: Still at Sea
  • Annie Dawid: The Doc Who Examined Her
  • Anthony Bloor: Blini
  • Anthony Watson: Black Lough
  • Anthony Watson: Daybreak
  • Anthony Watson: Falling Out
  • Ashley Chantler: Streaks Ahead
  • Ashley Hutson: Houseplants in Winter
  • Ashlie Allen: CD Depression
  • Ashlie Allen: Enea Wants the Venice Water
  • B F Jones: A Single Ripe Strawberry on a White Paper Plate
  • Barbara Harroun: Mirage
  • Barbara L. Baer: The Golden Years
  • Barbara Lovric: Some Days are Better than Ours
  • Barbara Renel: Hummingbird
  • Bart Van Goethem: The Smell
  • Beau Johnson: Advice, Free or Otherwise
  • Beau Johnson: Displeased
  • Beau Johnson: My Kingdom for a Fence
  • Beau Johnson: New Equipment
  • Beau Johnson: No Offence to Mr. Neeson
  • Beau Johnson: Recompense
  • Beau Johnson: Regrets? I’m Thinkin’ Yeah
  • Beau Johnson: Saying Goodbye
  • Bee Lewis: Charmaine
  • Bee Lewis: The Audit
  • Ben Slotky: Million Pounds of Clouds
  • Benedict J Jones: .357
  • Benjamin Niespodziany: Petoskey: A Bipolar Postcard
  • Bernard O’Rourke: No War Toys
  • Bibi Hamblin: The Colour of Regret
  • Bill Baber: By This Time Tomorrow
  • Bill Baber: Eighty Proof and the Ad Council
  • Bill Baber: Going to Find Her
  • Bradley Sides: Choices
  • Bradley Sides: Prairie Blues
  • Brett Pribble: Resurrection
  • Brian Seemann: A Last, First Time
  • Bronwen Griffiths: Conchita Gonzalez
  • Bronwen Griffiths: Heart Trouble
  • Bronwen Griffiths: The Flying Girl
  • Bruce Harris: Chilly Relations
  • Bruce Harris: Perfect Fit
  • Bryan Jones: Spine and Rind
  • Cal Marcius: Animal
  • Cal Marcius: Haven
  • Cal Marcius: It's Personal This Time
  • Cal Marcius: The Funeral
  • Cal Marcius: Two-Forty-Seven
  • Callie Payne: Beast in Berlin
  • Calum Kerr: Sin And Shadow
  • Cara Long: Things, First & Last
  • Carol Reid: North
  • Cath Barton: Between the Light and the Dark
  • Cath Barton: Out of the Picture
  • Cath Barton: The Lost Boys
  • Cath Barton: The Man I Am Not Marrying
  • Cath Barton: They Said It Would Be a Better Life
  • Catherine McNamara: The Goddess
  • Catherine McNamara: The Last Hike
  • Cathy Ulrich: Belonging
  • Cathy Ulrich: Charlie's Wife
  • Chance Dibben: Convergence
  • Charles Bane, Jr.: I Meet Geronimo
  • Charlie Bilton: The Last Living Beatle
  • Charlie Hill: Ruckus at the Dog and Duck
  • Charlie Hill: The Man Who Walked Backwards
  • Charlie Wade: Kenny
  • Charlie Wade: Spacey's People
  • Charlotte Newman: The People’s Woods
  • Charmaine Wilkerson: Ash
  • Chella Courington: Nothing Belongs to Us
  • Chella Courington: The Gift of Pomace
  • Cherry Potts: Rising Dawn
  • Cheryl Pearson: Pica
  • Cheryl Powell: Ozymandias
  • Chris Milam: I’ll Have What He’s Having
  • Chris Milam: Liquid Nights
  • Chris Milam: So Humble, So Everything
  • Christina Dalcher: The First Rule is “Do No Harm”
  • Christopher Acker: Whatever Happens, Happens
  • Christopher Allen: Dothead
  • Christopher Davis: Imitating Art
  • Christopher Davis: One Last Time
  • Christopher Davis: Something Blue
  • Christopher Gonzalez: Slow Roll
  • Christopher M Drew: One Door Closes
  • Christopher M Drew: Schumann’s Hand
  • Christopher P. Mooney: Big Marky
  • Christopher P. Mooney: CON/SENSUAL
  • Christopher P. Mooney: Friday, the 13th
  • Christopher P. Mooney: The Last Round
  • Christopher P. Mooney: Wrong Turn
  • Christopher Ray: The Fare
  • Christopher Ray: The Silver Fleece
  • Claire Polders: Flynn, Fate, and the Friendly Stranger
  • Clare O'Brien: Broken English
  • Clare Riley Whitfield: 100 Painted Lines
  • Clare Riley Whitfield: The Temp
  • Colin Watts: Intelligent Design
  • Colin Watts: Sisters
  • Copper Smith: The Thing Nobody Tells You About Getting Shot
  • Cornelia Fick: The Fourth Stage
  • CR Smith: The Rat-catcher’s Tales
  • Craig Towsley: Velvet & Wool
  • Damhnait Monaghan: Bye Bye Baby
  • Damhnait Monaghan: Crime Scene
  • Dan A. Cardoza: Ball and Chain
  • Dan Brotzel: Eau de l’avenir
  • Dan Brotzel: Plane-spotting
  • Dan Crawley: Lovey-Dovey
  • Dan Morey: Employee Appreciation Day
  • Dan Nielsen: A Catastrophic Event
  • Dan Nielsen: Don’t Always Eat Your Vegetables
  • Daniel W. Thompson: Twenty Seconds
  • Darren Sant: Celia Ann
  • Darrin Doyle: Water Fowl
  • David Borrowdale: Saturday in the Castle
  • David Cook: A Present for the Neighbour
  • David Cook: Eating Earwax Makes You Clever
  • David Cook: Jack, In the Box
  • David Cook: Soup
  • David Cook: Spade
  • David Hartley: Scientists
  • David Henson: Knaben
  • David Jaggers: Interrogation
  • David Jaggers: Lowlife Serenade
  • David Rachels: The Nurse
  • David S. Atkinson: Not Everyone Gets to be an Astronaut so Don’t Hold Your Breath Trying to Practice
  • David Swann: Approach to the Scar
  • Dayana Stetco: Boyhood: A Letter Fragment
  • Dennis Milam Bensie: Flowers From Steve
  • Diana Powell: Child
  • dm gillis: A Canadian Over Hiroshima
  • dm gillis: Rah-rah-rah Hopscotch
  • Donald Glass: No Turning Back
  • Donald Glass: Sobbing
  • Donna McLean: A Dog Named Che
  • DS Levy: The Transfer Station
  • Dustin L. Yocum: Stiff as a Board
  • Dylan Brie Ducey: The Message
  • Eden Sharp: A Normal Day
  • Eileen Herbert-Goodall: A Daughter’s Letter
  • Elanor Davies: The White Whale
  • Eleanor Mae: I Could Just Eat You Up
  • Eliza McGowen: Backlash
  • Elizabeth Stott: The Moment Before Falling
  • Embe Charpentier: Horizontal
  • Embe Charpentier: Maypole
  • Emily Wildash: Summer Holiday
  • Emma Venables: Jutta
  • Emmett Dulaney: Like a Kid in a Candy Store
  • Emmett Dulaney: Season Ten
  • Evan James Sheldon: A First Kiss
  • F.C. Malby: Don’t Let Her Out of Sight
  • Fiona J. Mackintosh: Ice Harvesting
  • Fiona J. Mackintosh: World Enough
  • Flo Ward: How It Is
  • Foster Trecost: Retribution
  • Frances Gapper: I Should Have Married You
  • Frances Gapper: Sweetness
  • Francine Witte: Blue
  • Francine Witte: Clownboy
  • Francine Witte: Snowchild
  • Frank Sonderborg: Comanche Moon
  • Frank Sonderborg: The Bowie Duel
  • Fred Zackel: Monica
  • Gabriel Valjan: Beneficiary
  • Gareth Spark: Hunting
  • Gareth Spark: Jackdaw
  • Gareth Spark: The Raid
  • Gareth Spark: The Song
  • Gary Duncan: The Island
  • Gary Duncan: Uncle Colin
  • Gay Degani: Blankets
  • Gay Degani: Waiting for Godo(nu)t
  • Gaynor Jones: Butterfly Kisses
  • Gen Del Raye: Admiral Onishi’s Ledger
  • Gerard McKeown: The Burnt Moth
  • GJ Hart: Bad Business
  • GJ Hart: Boxes
  • GJ Hart: Boy Saves World
  • GJ Hart: Cash Rich
  • GJ Hart: Cheesy Puffs
  • GJ Hart: Cold Islands
  • GJ Hart: Evil Is
  • GJ Hart: It Was Never Anything
  • GJ Hart: What Are They?
  • Graham Wynd: Repetition
  • Graham Wynd: Spirits in the Night
  • Graham Wynd: The Oven
  • Haley Petcher: A Cracked Narcissus
  • Hannah Clark: Through the Camphors
  • Hannah Fields: Denim Blue
  • Hannah Gordon: The Last Boy
  • Hansa Dasgupta: Fangirl
  • Hector Duarte Jr.: Gigi
  • Helen McClory: You’ll Meet Me There
  • Hilaire: Bittersweet Balcony
  • Hillary Leftwich: Secrets of the Playground
  • Howie Good: A Trilogy
  • Howie Good: Crucifixion Road
  • Howie Good: F-U-C-K-Y-O-U
  • Howie Good: Just an Ordinary Day
  • Howie Good: Ladders Cross the Blue Sky in a Wheel of Fire
  • Howie Good: Symptomatic
  • Howie Good: Three Stories
  • Howie Good: Why Spiders Have Eight Legs/Like A Refugee
  • Hugh Behm-Steinberg: True Story
  • Ingrid Jendrzejewski: Single Variable Calculus: A Syllabus
  • Iris N. Schwartz: At Liberty
  • J. Bradley: Flurry
  • J. Bradley: Let the Golden Age Begin
  • J. J. Sinisi: Fountain of Youth
  • J.M. Taylor: Last Meal
  • Jack Fisher: Rising Waters
  • Jack Fisher: The Beach House
  • Jack Fisher: The Camp
  • Jack Fisher: The Match
  • Jack Larkham: Room 29
  • Jackie Blackwell: Contact
  • Jacqueline Doyle: Red Riding Hood
  • Jacqui Pack: Insight
  • James Hartman: Picnic
  • James R. Gapinski: Consider the Grease Traps
  • Jamie Thunder: Behind Closed Doors
  • Jamie Thunder: The Central Line Has Severe Delays
  • Jan Stinchcomb: Children of the Black Flower
  • Jane Davis: The Fate of Circumstances
  • Jane Hertenstein: A Note in the Lobby
  • Janelle Hardacre: Would You Help Her?
  • Janice Leagra: Milestones
  • Jason Beech: Loose Words
  • Jason Beech: The Forgotten Man
  • Jason Beech: The Forgotten Man
  • Jason Beech: War
  • Jason Jackson: Spaces Where the Words Might Fit
  • Jay Merill: Jolene
  • Jayne Martin: Dearly Departed
  • Jayne Martin: Target Practice
  • Jayne Martin: The Understudy
  • Jeffrey Zable: Circumstances
  • Jennifer Falkner: The Minimalists
  • Jennifer Gallagher: The Cave
  • Jennifer Harvey: Things I Keep, Things I Discard
  • Jesse Rawlins: Kiss Me Goodbye, Baby …
  • Jesse Rawlins: The Proxy
  • Jo Davies: Memory
  • Jo Davies: Spectrum Analysis
  • Jo Withers: Five Little Ducks
  • Joan Leotta: The Magician's Trick
  • Joe Bedford: Stack of Uncles
  • Joe Giordano: Legacy
  • John Brantingham: Knead
  • John King: Cry the Beloved County
  • John Leavitt: Yappy
  • John Lewis: Strangers Shall Eat Their Bread
  • John Weagly: The Woman Who Waltzed With Ulysses S. Grant
  • Jon Sindell: Oxygen Tank
  • Jon Sindell: River Bottom
  • Jonathan Cardew: Greasy Bangers
  • Jonathan Cardew: Pretend-Phoning
  • Jonathan Cardew: Something Else
  • Jonathan Pinnock: GAR
  • Jonathan Pinnock: Graffiti
  • Joseph H. Stryker: Hobbyist
  • Joseph H. Stryker: NEET
  • Joseph H. Stryker: What Remains
  • Joseph Rubas: Time
  • Judy Darley: Not Every Wound Can Heal
  • Julia Paillier: Big School
  • Julia Paillier: The Shape of Things
  • Julie Oldham: Making the Grade
  • K. A. Laity: Do Anything You Wanna Do
  • K. A. Laity: Fur Baby
  • K. A. Laity: Pink
  • Kaj Tanaka: Owl
  • Kapka Nilan: Crazy Bears
  • Kapka Nilan: Red Wine and Onion
  • Kate Jones: Arrivals
  • Kate Jones: Beast
  • Kate Jones: Chemistry
  • Kate Jones: Fairy Tales
  • Kate Jones: Lower Manhattan Skyline
  • Kate Jones: Magic 8
  • Kate Jones: Yellow Dinghy
  • Kate Murdoch: Neonatal
  • Kate Woodward: Blow by Tempered Blow
  • Kate Woodward: The Ocularist
  • Kathryn Kulpa: Honolulu Souvenir, 1941
  • Kathy Hoyle: The Circle
  • Kayla Rae Candrilli: Without Mirrors
  • Kelly Whipple: Meeting God
  • Kevan Youde: The Fiery Constellation
  • Kevin Tosca: Art
  • Kevin Tosca: Ode to Lubitsch
  • Kevlin Henney: Marking Loss
  • Kim Magowan: Low Sturdy Skunks
  • Kit Garrett: Lithium
  • Kristy Kerruish: As Long as the Rain Fell
  • Kristy Kerruish: Melt Waters
  • Kyle Hemmings: Father Dunne’s School for Wayward Boys #3
  • Kyle Hemmings: Navel Flower
  • Kyle Hemmings: Three of a Kind
  • Kyle Hemmings: Winter Education
  • LA Sykes: Rollerblades
  • Laura Besley: Breaking the Seal
  • Laura Besley: Near and Far
  • Laura Ward-Smith: The Invisible Girl
  • Lauren Bell: A Smile to Keep
  • Lauren Bell: Enzymes
  • Lauren Bell: Tattoo
  • Lauren Bell: Trading Places, Changing Spaces
  • Lauren Bell: Uprooting
  • Lauren Signorelli: Just Barely a House
  • Lee Hamblin: Day 57
  • Lee Hamblin: Soldier Boy
  • Len Kuntz: Door Without a Window
  • Leonard Kress: Revolution in the Revolution
  • Leslie Walker Trahan: We Knew All the Words
  • Levi Andrew Noe: Quitter
  • Liam Hogan: Sounds and Whispers
  • Liam Sweeny: Beggar’s Brunch
  • Liam Sweeny: Small Miracles
  • Linda Niehoff: Coyote Heart
  • Lisa Ferranti: We Knew Not What
  • Liz Jones: The Right To A View
  • Liz McAdams: How to Make an Omelette
  • Liz McAdams: Saturday Morning
  • Liz McAdams: Shopping
  • Lori Lipsky: Shopping for Next Year
  • Louise Mangos: An Icy End
  • Louise Mangos: Barbara’s Salon
  • Luke Silver: The Blowfish
  • Lynn Mundell: Laura
  • M.S.: The Babysitter
  • M.S.: Vicious Cycle
  • Madeline Anthes: The Weight of Cold
  • Marcia Eppich-Harris: Once Upon a Train
  • Marie Gethins: Dissection
  • Mark Budman: My Baby Shot Me Down
  • Mark Budman: Twitter, Now and Then
  • Mark Cooper: Don't Stop …
  • Mark Crimmins: Recognition on Forty-Seventh Street
  • Mark Renney: Salesman
  • Mark Stewart: Thresholds
  • Mark Westmoreland: A Long Night
  • Mark Westmoreland: Chicken Fried Steak and Mashed Potatoes
  • Marvin Shackelford: This Is Nothing New
  • Mary Saliger: Room to Dance
  • Mary Thompson: Ladybird
  • Mary Thompson: Obsession
  • Matt Harris: Hokey Cokey
  • Matt Hutchinson: Something in the Moment
  • Matt Mattila: Easy Dealing
  • Matthew Cook: Bunk
  • Matthew Licht: Arctitis
  • Matthew Licht: Rocco Siffredi at 71
  • Matthew Licht: Soft Pirate
  • Matthew Licht: The Pool
  • Max Dunbar: GPS
  • Max Scratchmann: Columbus Says …
  • Meg Pokrass: Bike Mechanic
  • Meg Tuite: Once Upon an Echo
  • Meg Tuite: Rerouting the Turf
  • Melissa Goode: Crystal
  • Michael Bloor: Hereford Cathedral Library
  • Michael Bloor: The Long Watches of the Night
  • Michael Carter: Liquid Gold in Big Sky
  • Michael Chin: Lies
  • Michael Chin: Steel Cage
  • Michael Grant Smith: Movie Trailer Trash
  • Michael Grant Smith: The Atomic Clock
  • Michael Gunn: Life’s Little Distractions
  • Michael Koenig: Our Lady of Mercy
  • Michael Loveday: But the Devil Loves the Thing Known and Unspoken
  • Michael Loveday: Dear Mr. Snaresbrook
  • Michael Loveday: Solitary Man, Or How He Is Saved, at 5:04 p.m. on Sunday the 14th April, by the Brooklyn Cowboy, Neil Diamond
  • Michael Prihoda: Our Son
  • Michael Sams: Salt in the Wound
  • Michael Zimmer: Colorado Boulevard
  • Michelle Ross: A Treatise on the Broken Heart Idiom
  • Michelle Ross: Frogs in Captivity
  • Mitchell Waldman: Old Man
  • Monica Dickson: Receipts
  • Morgan Boyd: Bad Batch
  • Myra King: Air Locked
  • N.J. Campbell: Rain
  • Nan Wigington: The Sound of One Hand Clapping
  • Natalie Bowers: The Last Mug
  • Neil Campbell: A Worn Path
  • Neil Campbell: Roachburn, 1908
  • Neil Campbell: The Sally
  • Neil Campbell: The Street With No Name
  • Neil Campbell: The Sun in September
  • Nicholas Cook: Stolen
  • Nicholas Day: How Old is a Shadow
  • Nicholas Rixon: Chicken Stew and Hooch
  • Nicholas Rixon: The End
  • Nick Black: A Man Walks Into a Sidebar
  • Nick Black: Dinner and the Cannibals
  • Nick Black: It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes Eggs to Bake a Pie
  • Nick Sweeney: Jerry’s Last Word
  • Niles Reddick: Checking In
  • Niles Reddick: Picture
  • Niles Reddick: The Frogs
  • Nod Ghosh: Clifford
  • Nod Ghosh: M to F Weekdays
  • Nod Ghosh: Misty
  • Nod Ghosh: The Evolution of Fur
  • Oscar Windsor-Smith: The Real Deal
  • Paul Alex Gray: Aphelion
  • Paul B. Cohen: Safe in Parks
  • Paul Beckman: A Different Kind of Practice
  • Paul Beckman: Accomplice
  • Paul Beckman: Cinders
  • Paul Beckman: Deal or No Deal
  • Paul Beckman: Dial Zero for the Desk Clerk
  • Paul Beckman: Garbage Secrets
  • Paul Beckman: Helen and Ellen
  • Paul Beckman: I Have a Problem
  • Paul Beckman: Irma Likes Her Blessings, Elaine Likes Her Humpty
  • Paul Beckman: Mid-Kid
  • Paul Beckman: Semantics
  • Paul Beckman: Thank God I Hear Voices
  • Paul Curtis: Vertigo
  • Paul D. Brazill: Fiery Jack
  • Paul D. Brazill: Pretty Green
  • Paul D. Brazill: Right Place Wrong Time
  • Paul D. Brazill: The Daytripper
  • Paul D. Brazill: The Long Haul
  • Paul D. Brazill: The Odds and the Sods
  • Paul Fishman: You Must Eat Your Boots First
  • Paul Gray: Everyone Changes
  • Paul Gray: Trace Amounts
  • Paul Greenberg: Mall of Confusion
  • Paul Heatley: After the Party
  • Paul Heatley: Bo's Burial
  • Paul Heatley: Bobby’s Dog
  • Paul Heatley: Initiation
  • Paul Heatley: Lady’s Choice
  • Paul Heatley: Nico’s Laugh
  • Paul Heatley: The Dancing Girl
  • Paul Smith: A Cloudburst
  • Paul Smith: Anishinaabemowin
  • Paul Thelen: Cat Walk
  • Paul Thompson: All the Way to the Coast
  • Paul Thompson: Here Come the Gulls
  • Peter DiChellis: Stegmann’s Basement
  • Peter DiChellis: The Lonely Gravedigger
  • Peter Haynes: To the Ghost of the Homeless Man I Met by the ATM Last Night
  • Peter Haynes: Waterdark
  • Peter Jordan: The Killing Chair
  • Phil Berry: Coppers
  • Phil Berry: Three-Sided Quadrilateral
  • Preston Lang: Three Minutes Thirty-Nine Seconds
  • Prisha Mehta: Winter Prison
  • Rachael Smart: Velocity
  • Rachael Smart: Y
  • Rachel Lister: Channeling Aphrodite
  • Rachel Smith: How the Days Turn
  • Randal Eldon Greene: A New Kind of Mother
  • Ray Hoskins: The Water
  • Ray Hoskins: What Made Her Smile
  • Ray Scanlon: Arbitrageur
  • Rebecca Field: A New Hat
  • Rebecca Field: Blueberry Lake
  • Rebecca Field: Hiding Out
  • Rebecca Lyon: Him
  • Rebecca Metcalfe: Wet
  • Rebecca Williams: Lights Out
  • Renuka Raghavan: Post-Op Wishes
  • Rhyannon Q Brightwater: The River Takes Its Own
  • Richard Baldasty: Lobster
  • Richard Godwin: Passing Trucks
  • Riham Adly: Mama’s Shrug
  • RJ Ellory: The Job Interview
  • Rob Walton: Basket Case
  • Robert Boucheron: Cigar Box
  • Robert Boucheron: How to Sharpen a Pencil
  • Robert Boucheron: One Morning
  • Robert Scotellaro: The Tiniest Fish
  • Robert Scotellaro: Voice-overs
  • Robert Vaughan: Sex, Lies and Videotape
  • Ron Burch: Seed, Crop, Harvest
  • Ron Gibson, Jr.: Migrations
  • Ron Gibson, Jr.: Them Boys
  • Ross Warren: Shackled and Drawn
  • Roy Dorman: The House Call
  • Ruth Geldard: Here It Comes
  • Ruth Geldard: Signs
  • Ryan Borchers: The Walls Have a Problem
  • Ryan Sayles: Role Playing for the Early Patricidist
  • S J Mannion: "Confession" and "Irascible"
  • S J Mannion: My Husband's Brother
  • S. J. Moran: Criminals
  • S. Kearing: Rendered
  • S.A. Leavesley: Collecting Pylons
  • S.A. Leavesley: The Grape-Face
  • S.E. Casey: A Broken Oath
  • S.W. Lauden: Scales
  • S.W. Lauden: Secondary
  • Sabrina Hicks: The Distance Between Neighbors
  • Sagar Patel: The Urinal
  • Salvadore Ritchie: Kings
  • Salvatore Difalco: House Rules
  • Sandra Arnold: Barbie Girl
  • Sandra Arnold: Serafina’s Star
  • Sandra Arnold: Waiting Lists
  • Santino Prinzi: A Change of Luck
  • Santino Prinzi: Hereditary
  • Santino Prinzi: Moderation
  • Santino Prinzi: The Greatest Temptation of Mother Teresa
  • Santino Prinzi: Volumes
  • Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar: I Watch It Happen
  • Sarah Davy: Harvest
  • Sarah M. Chen: The Benevolent Man
  • Sarah Sawler: I Know It’s Summer Because of You
  • Sarah-Clare Conlon: Personalities Don’t Make Good Screensavers
  • Sean Daly: Two Reasons
  • Sebnem E. Sanders: Cercis Siliquastrum
  • Sebnem E. Sanders: Laundry
  • Sebnem E. Sanders: Laundry
  • Sebnem Sanders: Virginia Creeper
  • Shannon Frost Greenstein: An Uninspiring Message from Rosie the Riveter
  • Shannon Frost Greenstein: Joseph Smith in, “I Absolutely Did Not Promote Polygamy Just to Have Sex with a Lot of Women”
  • Sharon Telfer: Biodynamic
  • Sharon Telfer: We’re Hearing Reports of an Incident in Amsterdam
  • Sheldon Lee Compton: Straw
  • Simon Pinkerton: Expose the Member
  • Simon Pinkerton: Giant Hardcore Defender-Man with Moving Eyes, Magnified Insecurities
  • Simon Pinkerton: Supernature
  • Slawka G. Scarso: The First Man on the Moon
  • Sonia Kilvington: Bad Reputation
  • Sonia Kilvington: Skin Deep
  • Sonia Kilvington: Winter Baby
  • Sophie van Llewyn: A Conversation between the Spice Trader’s Daughter and her Lover, a Fortnight after She Burned at the Stake
  • Sophie Watson: Bunny Girl
  • Spencer Chou: Bastard
  • Stefan Lutter: Rudbeckia
  • Stephanie Hutton: Dear Brother
  • Stephanie Hutton: Left-Overs
  • Stephanie Hutton: Road to Recovery
  • Stephanie Hutton: The Deal
  • Stephen Buehler: No More
  • Stephen Regan: His Bad Eminence
  • Stephen Regan: Killing Stingers
  • Steve Beers: The News
  • Steve Campbell: Cuckoos
  • Steve Cushman: Shopping, Later
  • Steve Passey: Hummingbird Knowledge, Hummingbird Chance
  • Steve Passey: In the Ashes of This Empire
  • Steve Passey: Incantation
  • Steve Passey: Intersection (Parentheses)
  • Steve Passey: Invisible to Men
  • Steve Passey: No Rye at Christmas
  • Steven John: Done Paris
  • Steven John: Signum Crucis
  • Steven John: You’ve Never Lived
  • Sudha Balagopal: Adjustments
  • Susan Condon: Remember Me
  • Susmita Bhattacharya: Bones
  • Susmita Bhattacharya: Mind Games
  • Suzanne Pearman: Flatlines
  • T. L. Sherwood: The Difference Between Us
  • T. Maxim Simmler: The Shadow of Ghosts
  • Tabatha Stirling: Lines
  • Tara Campbell: Another Damn Cottage
  • Tara Lynn Hawk: Four Girlfriends, Four Dinners
  • Tess Makovesky: The Red Umbrella
  • Tess Makovesky: Trick of the Trade
  • Thaisa Frank: While You Were Sleeping
  • Tianna Grosch: Polish the Bones
  • Tim Love: Art and Fire
  • Tim Love: How Time Flies
  • Tim Love: The Park
  • Tim Love: The Right Time and Place
  • Tim Love: What She Missed
  • Tobias Baudry: A Hard Goodbye
  • Todd Morr: A Simple Equation
  • Tom Darin Liskey: A Table Set in the Wilderness
  • Tom Hazuka: The Pie-Eyed Piper
  • Tom Jenks: Guru
  • Tom Leins: All I Want for Christmas Are Your Two Front Teeth
  • Tom Leins: Bedlam Money
  • Tom Leins: Christmas is Going to the Dogs
  • Tom Leins: Clawfist
  • Tom Leins: Massive Bereavement
  • Tom Leins: Oozy Rat in a Sanitary Zoo
  • Tom Leins: Scumbags with Bumbags
  • Tom Leins: The Big Blow Off
  • Tom Leins: The Cold Vein
  • Tom Leins: What Another Man Spills
  • Tom Leins: Zero Sum
  • Tom O’Brien: Young at Heart
  • Tommy Dean: Out of the Dust
  • Tommy Dean: Tight-Knit
  • Tony Press: For Sure
  • Tony Press: Just Like That
  • Tony Press: Teacher on the Road
  • Traci Mullins: You See Nothing
  • Tracy Fells: Hare
  • Tracy Fells: When in Rome
  • Tyler Anne Whichard: I Spot Pink Slippers in Cloud Formations
  • Veronica Bright: A Set of Flying Ducks
  • Veronica Bright: Martha
  • Veronica Bright: My Sister
  • Veronica Bright: With the Freak. Not Smiling.
  • Veronica Montes: The Man Who Came From an Island Where Everyone Knows How to Sing
  • Vic Smith: Early Harvest, 1914
  • Victoria Briggs: Henry the 9th
  • Vincent JS Wood: French On the Train
  • Vincent Wood: Human of the Year
  • Will Radke: Wake Up
  • William Telford: Did I Lock the Door?
  • William Telford: Eaten to Death
  • Zachary Wilhide: By the Horns
  • Zachary Wilhide: Closed Casket

Archives

  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
Follow Spelk on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 8,612 other followers

Advertisements

Blog at WordPress.com.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
%d bloggers like this: