Capezio

Some of us are birthed rigid, leather left too long in the sun, so carefully struck dense beneath hands. Everyone and everything’s hands. Shaped into whatever it is we play at long before your shadow cooled me. You knit something soft overtop, fingers of catgut dancing like satin ribbon and for a time there is a concealing, something less than painful looming in the mirror. And though we both knew I would ravel and tear with so many seams under the strain of your weight, I knew the taste of skin on your throat, and we made the world spin.

Nick Christian is a poet and fiction writer who currently studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Introduction

I hate going to the Introduction Agency to get a date. There is a certain sense of shame and failure.

This time it’s for a skiing, long weekend my boss has arranged. I can’t attend another company weekend alone.

“My screen has a record of your preference,” says the receptionist. “You last used our personal services four months ago. Your good credit qualifies you for bronze level membership. Would you like to join?”

Tempted, I nod my head.

“We can introduce you to Amber, model looks, brunette, elegant. Amber will be fully recharged in about ninety minutes. Care to wait?”From Guest Contributor Barry O'Farrell

Barry is an actor living in Brisbane, Australia. Barry's other stories can be found at Cyclamens & Swords, 50 Word Stories, and here at A Story In 100 Words.

Ruby's Incontinence

“You’re such an asshole Chuck,” the back-braced senior citizen Ruby said as Chuck held the Stanford Medical Center elevator door open for her with one arm, balancing seven incontinence pads in his left.

Chuck smiled and pushed floor one.

“We’re parked in the basement you idiot.”

“I knew that, dear. I wanted to show you every floor so I’d get my money’s worth. $75,000 to fix a damned hernia.”

“You’d rather I be in pain, jerk?”

“Hmm… tough question.”

“Proves my point.”

“I love you enough to tolerate your usual grumpiness at the hospital.”

“Of course you do. You would.”

From Guest Contributor Jay Paul

Luke the Wonder Dog

My dog takes credit for ‘diagnosing’ my brain tumor. My husband and I entered our garage together, but he jumped back. I asked what’s wrong.

“You’re kidding? The stench is unbearable.”

Late August temperatures cooked the bin used to collect the dog’s poop and the lid fell open, releasing a stink.

“I don’t smell anything.”

“That can’t be right.”

My doctor scheduled an MRI that revealed a racquetball-sized tumor between my eyes and olfactory nerve. It was operable and benign. I was lucky.

My dog reminds me at every turn that I owe him my life. He thinks he’s Lassie.

From Guest Contributor Anne Anthony

To Delete, Or Not to Delete

To delete, or not to delete, that is the question. Kurt stares at the highlighted name on his phone, and his finger hovers indecisively over the button that will erase Karen from his life forever. Eyes closed, he breathes deeply. Deleting would be the right thing to do, considering the misery she’s caused him. On the other hand, she was the source of some incredible moments in his life. Maybe she’ll come to her senses someday, he thinks. Maybe this isn’t quite the end. He opens his eyes, backs out of the directory, and leaves her there. Just in case.

From Guest Contributor Dan Slaten

Calendar Sex

Cellos make little nicks in the dark and we breathe together. The afternoon was a failure. This plain gesture, togetherness, makes quick use of industrious forgetfulness. I cannot keep you behind this gate beyond the third movement. We mean to create more than one monologue to accompany the flutist. The children upstairs, our occupancy momentarily set. I position your fingers behind my neck as talisman for strings. The tent is down. This igloo explodes into every shard of routine that has, before this moment, set what stands for you and for me, aflame, sparks falling into pockets, to the ground.

From Guest Contributor Kelli Allen

Kelli Allen’s work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies in the US and internationally. She is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and has won awards for her poetry, prose, and scholarly work. She served as Managing Editor of Natural Bridge and holds an MFA from the University of Missouri St. Louis. She is the director of the River Styx Hungry Young Poets Series and founded the Graduate Writers Reading Series for UMSL. She is currently a Professor of Humanities and Creative Writing at Lindenwood University. Allen is the author of two chapbooks and one flash fiction collection. Her full-length poetry collection, Otherwise, Soft White Ash, arrived from John Gosslee Books in 2012 and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Fear

I always said I was scared of nothing. I wasn't afraid of the dark, or death, or even lizards, mice and cockroaches. I didn't disbelieve in ghosts, but they’d done nothing to make me believe. Nor was I frightened of Judgement Day, because I am a conscientious person. Until the moment I heard the sound of footsteps approaching my room, I was truly scared of nothing. But when his shadow crept into the bedroom and his sinewy hands stifled my scream before tearing off every scrap of modesty on my being from that moment on, I became scared of everything.

From Guest Contributor Namitha Varma

Namitha Varma is a media professional based in Mangaluru, India. She has publishing credits in over 15 literary journals including Sahitya Akademi’s journal Indian Literature, eFiction India, Hackwriters, MadSwirl, FIVE Poetry, Microfiction Monday Magazine, and Postcard Shorts. Her micropoem has been read out on NPR Radio as part of the National Poetry Month 2014, and a poem of hers features in the Authorspress anthology ‘Resonating Strings.’ She blogs on narcissistwrites.blogspot.com and tweets via @namithavr.

Analgesics

My Grandfather’s house is becoming more and more cluttered. I’m afraid he is becoming a hoarder.

I am most concerned he will muddle his medications.

“Where do you keep your medicines, pills and tablets?” I ask.

“In the medicine cabinet, follow me, I’ll show you.” He leads me into the bathroom.

I open the cabinet door revealing dozens of unopened packets of analgesics stacked on the shelves. I look at him quizzically but don’t say anything. Finally he breaks the silence.

“I take them for my memory.”

“No,” I correct him, “Analgesics are prescribed for pain.”

“I have painful memories.”

From guest contributor Barry O'Farrell

Barry O'Farrell is an actor living in Brisbane, Australia. Barry's stories may also be found in Cyclamens & Swords, 50 Words Stories, and here at A Story In 100 Words.

Witness

The firemen backed out of the room, choking on the gut-churning scent. The old woman lay splayed across the floor, one purple foot twisted out from under the quilted bathrobe, the other in a pink slipper, the lamb's wool gripping the foot it could no longer warm, by her side a bloated miniature dachshund and a cat curled and frozen on the cushion of the kitchen chair. A cockatoo danced back and forth on his perch, still calling to the woman on the floor, to the dog in whining vigil, to the three weeks of silence in the house.

From Guest Contributor Diane de Anda

The Poet's Life

I sat on the large stone in the middle of the picnic field. I had my notebook out and was busy scribbling away. There were couples and families and dogs and blankets. There was food and sport and laughter and a few tears. The more life unfurled around me, the faster my pencil lurched across the page.

This is the life of the poet. A life of watching. You might call me a mirror, or a tape recorder. I am an instrument.

But life is lived whether we laugh and love our way to death or record others doing it.