Prose and Prizes and Punch

Pleased as punch to find out Michael Solender and the other fine folks at Full of Crow Press liked my story COCHINOS (MiCrow 7; Summer 2012) enough to nominate this very small fiction for Pushcart Prize.

I love the annual Pushcart Anthology. So much excellent fiction, poetry, essays, many by familiar writers published in familiar journals. The heft of the volume feels good in my hands. I have last year's on the table by my bed--it makes for a good read when I want to read something dependable and short.

I haven't a chance in hell of 'winning'--I am an unknown, and admit it: the Pushcart judges do not smile too often or favorably upon electronic journals. But the persistence of internet journal editors like Michael Solender and Lynn Alexander, who publish provocative prose, poetry, and art, will eventually wear down the old-fashioned walls of the Pushcart Prize. I am humbled to have my story published in Microw, nominated for the Pushcart, and most of all, to be a small part of the electronic movement changing the face of the written word. Peace...

COCHINOS Up @ MiCROW

My small story Cochinos up at the fabulous MiCROW. The summer theme is home, and what a collection of dark and delicious stories, images, and poems. A huge thank you to Michael Solender, editor and writer extra-ordinaire for including my work.

I'm out of commission the rest of this week, summering with limited internet. Fill your time with the fine reads at MiCROW. Catch you soon. Peace...

26

twenty-six is out.

The best of the second quarter of 52/250 flashes, 26 features tremendous writers and artisits, including Marcus Speh, Catherine Russell, Kim Hutchsinson, the Susans (Susan Tepper and Susan Gibb), Dorothee Lang, Elizabeth Kate Switaj, Guy Yasko, the Matts (Matt Hamilton and Matt Potter), Al Mc Dermid, Nicolette Wong, Bernard Heise, Stephen Hastings-King, and about two dozen others, give or take. And of course, the flash-wisdom of congenial hosts Michelle Elvy, John Wentworth Chapin, and Walter Bjorkman.

Thank you kind editors for selecting several of my stories, including STONE, which you can listen to HERE.

Come join in the fun. Read and listen, then take your own spin at the weekly theme. Peace...

COCHINOS - #fridayflash

The garbage bag bumps behind you through the glass-strewn median. You startle when the 18-wheeler barrels past. A cigarette spatters orange on the pavement.

“Cochinos.” You stab a soggy diaper. “Pigs. All Americanos.”

The watch you found last week shines Indy-Glo green. Two more hours, no more breaks. Rats stare at you, their eyes fearless pinpricks, but you reach around them for the Corona empties, the crumpled McDonald’s bags, and wait for dawn to spill, a broken yolk across the desert.

You scrape crushed rabbit from the asphalt, gagging at the smell. Dead animals still get to you, haunting your dreams. Those nights Simona soothes you, reminds you of Spring, when you can quit and pick berries in the valley, then asparagus, almond, and, when the baby comes, grapes. Sometimes you curse yourself for listening to her, for leaving La Paz, but she wanted a better life for the child. It’s not her fault construction dried up.

Orange flecks the clouds. The cool breeze reminds you of the Coromuel winds, and you try to thank God for this job, but you can’t. You can only pray for this shift to end.

You hear the thrum of blowflies before you see the white-swaddled object, larger than the rabbit; a dog, perhaps, or small coyote. At one end, a thatch of black. Your heart races even as your walk slows and somehow, you know, even before you reach down to unwrap the sheet, expose the face, you will never again pick trash on a highway.

***

Inspired by a recent long drive when I wondered: who cleans the highway? And by the theme 'busy at work' from the good folks at 52-250 Flash a Year Challenge.