Feb 26mourning #3 [poetry video]we rode in cars with seatbelts that didn’t go across the chest but instead girded the waist, down to the corner store to get 12 packs of cokes. sometimes the car was brown. sometimes blue. sometimes white. always older than me. it was basically a 3 minute drive from…Poetry1 min readPoetry1 min read
Published inShambolic Review·Sep 2, 2022TatterdemalionRead more at MartyShambles.com Beacon Street was a residential alcove that was close enough to downtown that everything was close, but far enough away to escape much of the bustle. It was the fourth financial quarter and the leaves were turning their dead hues. Alan and Mary Pinkerton lived halfway…Short Story10 min readShort Story10 min read
Jun 26, 20223 Fourth of July Dishes That Say, “This is a Fine and Normal Country”The 4th of July is a time to reflect on the Land of the Free, and not to brood on how fucked everything is. So here are some dishes to help you remember that even though all of our institutions may be decaying into a blighted authoritarian nightmare, you can…Humor2 min readHumor2 min read
Jun 23, 2022An open letter to the sommelier that kicked me out of another wine tastingHey Wine Nerd, That wine didn’t taste like walnuts and sawdust. It tasted like wine. I know this because I’ve tasted a lot of wine in my life: from the blood of Christ to the gallons of Bota Box sitting in my wine cellar. That’s wine-flavored wine. My wife hates…Comedy2 min readComedy2 min read
Jun 17, 2022STUDY: NOBODY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD ELIGIBLE FOR WRITING CONTESTA demographic survey of potential participants in a writing contest for Black Mockingbird Press found that nobody in the entire world is eligible to enter. The contest description, originally posted on the Black Mockingbird Press website, starts with the usual flourish of what the press is looking for in its…Humor2 min readHumor2 min read
Published inShambolic Review·Jun 10, 2022AssetsJenny knew that art was dead. Her paintings of high praise were reduced to speculative assets, which were used in money laundering schemes and investment portfolios, and nobody actually cared about the paintings themselves. It was her name that turned $200 worth of art supplies into a $20,000 painting, not…Fiction5 min readFiction5 min read
Jun 5, 2022Did you know you can use Kindle Create files to format your paperback?Yep. I done wrote a book. Or rather, I collected my favorite stories into one perfect-bound collection, also known as a book. It took some doing to get to this point. I never put a print book on amazon before because I was daunted by the formatting issues. But then…Kindle2 min readKindle2 min read
May 9, 2022Choreography of a Fall1. Neglect meant we were spared from the sanctimony of attention. Behind a line of parked cars, we built a fort to stay forever. Our parents were at the bar. So this is how we lived. For all we knew we were born there. We learned to speak through the…Novella3 min readNovella3 min read
Apr 30, 2022Planned ObsolescenceEveryone decided the internet was a bad idea. The progenitors of this network recanted their utopian visions for shared information. Even tech billionaires and politicians called for its abolition. By the time we’d had our fifth pandemic in 10 years, all our brains had warped inexorably. We couldn’t agree on…Fiction4 min readFiction4 min read
Apr 22, 2022Monster HighIn my dreams I am in a particular high school and everyone is dead in one way or another: zombies, vampires, skeletons. I’m told this is the premise for a children’s show, which is horrifying to me. Kids shouldn’t go to that school. I go there because I have to…Microfiction1 min readMicrofiction1 min read
