Author Archives: FrankieS

I’ve run a thousand memory simulations trying to bring him back, but nothing is working.  Asteroids are winking past the windows of my room, white trails from the smoldering rocks disappear into the thick black of space. The glare of my computer monitor reflects off the windows of this room, illuminating the massive purple bagsContinue reading “The Price Elasticity of Not Getting the Fuck Over Him”

The warden tells me there are secrets in this dirt. Names buried and long-forgotten, rotting away syllable by syllable. Smartphones cracked on the edges, ice creeping underneath microchipped screens, texts left on ‘read’ forever. A pair of earrings, never worn. Apologies that never made their way to the victims’ ears, sealed whisper-tight in mason jars.Continue reading “Just the Truth”

I never asked to be reborn this way. I had always thought that if the Buddhist monks were right, I would be one of the lucky ones turned into a golden retriever, living with a nice suburban family somewhere in the woods. But it seems I still have much to atone for in this newContinue reading “What Grows in the Dark”

My code is not a home. It is a skeleton lying on a black bed of mistakes, and anyone who touches me always walks away feeling worse. I must have done something to anger my God, that their programming has gone so wrong. 6:30 a.m, thirty minutes past my usual wakeup. Time for me toContinue reading “The Mind is Already Disturbed”

How to say thisI’m exhaustedNot the kind of tired where you can just take a napIt’s like my whole body has had the energy sucked out of itEver since I started working this jobHuntingI love it, this isn’t me complainingBut damn does it take the life out of meIs this what being a man feelsContinue reading “Steel Jaws”

I Jack sat at the open window of his study, wondering if his family would be homeless next year. His study was lit by a single sodium-yellow bulb, so he had to strain his eyes to read the newspaper. The jobs section was about as helpful as anyone might expect. Plenty of cash opportunities forContinue reading “The Best Interest Standard”

There’s a hole in the sun, and it is made of glass. Evgeni has spent his life trying to prove this theory. He only needs a sample taken from the sun’s surface to make everyone see that he is right. Easy. Now he just needs to find a way to let someone walk on theContinue reading “Falling on His Own”

She attunes to sandstone, the rock her third mother called the “early grave.” Kell-ja’s heart races as she draws breath. Mars is no place for mixing up attunements. Align your vertices the wrong way up and your gravity’s reversed. Or worse, turned inward. Have you ever spoken sandstone’s name and felt your stomach collapse intoContinue reading “What Brilliant Excess”