Good writing. No remorse. http://www.wordriot.org/ This story is an homage to failure: it is told underwater through snapshots or collage, in no particular order, without color. Is found at the bottom of a body of water, buried, stuck in the mud, unm http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1465 Everyone had an excuse. Carl and Becky Lockyear forgot that they'd already committed to the Drake's baby shower. Tom Jenkins' car broke down on the freeway and had to be towed. Alex Miles and his http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1466 The Hourglass We forget our names and move on. We flee every fifteen minutes. You keep an hourglass with a timer. We're afraid of what will happen if the hourglass breaks. Even more afraid than what we http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1467 "Do we drink too much?" Sarah and I were running errands when she asked. Sarah had asked this before, and it annoyed me. Only people who drink too much ask themselves if they drink too much. I wanted http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1468 Liquid, limpid, lambent, looking: two arches of eyes emoting, asterisk irises like fireworks exploding, glistening, gleaming, open, wide as the skies, in fear, or love... Fluid, filled near overflowin http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1469 Joseph is driving westward on Martin Luther King Boulevard when in the vacant lot on the corner of Morrison Street he sees a golden ring-necked pheasant. Now, Baltimore City is not without a fairly http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1474 Six months? Give or take a month or two he said.What did he say about drinking. Don't matter now. Can I get you one? Sure — thanks. Family? Yes her and two kids. I've been laid off for three mont http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1475 Truman showed initial interest in the pop songs I played him but was disgusted with their endings. As one faded out, he seized the volume knob to compensate. I feared he'd blown out the speakers when http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1476 Walking into the store fifteen minutes late, I found Miles scooping dead tetras from an aquarium with a green net. Rubbery bodies slapped the walls of a cardboard box. Several stuck to the side like w http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1477 I see her jump from the Golden Gate and fall in slow motion, float into the gray waters of the bay, the churning chop of waves and boat wake engulfs her body and she is gone, disappearing beneath the http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1478 My friend who lost her sight describe show she feels her way into roomswith faded eyes, invisible floors. Music smells like pinkas it washes her tongue and fingers,words taste like blue moon, the swish http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1479 I chopped fish heads. She boxed bodiesfor shipment to California. Before work each day, I brought her a pair of perfectly fitting blue rubber gloves. She tied my white apron behind my back. I told he http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1480 DOG if you could mold me the way you have molded your dog and what a good dog he is the way he does everything you say. and smiles a dog smile about it. If you could mold me like that who would I be? http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1481 "Butter the roll,the rock trucks,the last squalland all your hairpins. Close the bookon fire trucks,the long heave of the valley,the unlit porch lampsat night. "Gather creek rocks,moonlight, the "E" from http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1482 Mrs. Wheeler is having a conversation with a convincing jumble of interstate saying something about leaving town Her children clang like a few angry spoons arguing in the sink The whole house is http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1483 01. Gurgling the umbra of some awkward grace I say I have melted softly into the panorama The tracheas are puddling below us at an inexhaustible velocity We are in the atmosphere http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1484 Closed Curve I get the pizza at Pascal's. He wagers I'll be back for more. A pragmatic salvation From eternal damnation, He claims, can be mine, Then adds, "The price is right for Agnostic swine." Now, That http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1485 The minnows are jumpingin Minnow Pond, one upon the other--fins and gills,scales against scales,navigating a close proximity. Inverted in the cold retinasof countless fisheyes,a stagnant crowded world http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1486 216 Pages Price: $15.00 Cross Roads Press P.O. Box 33 Ellison Bay, WI 54210 www.bleidoorcountytimes.com ISBN: 0-889460-16-8 Review-Interview By: Charles P. Ries SALUD is a homage to Curt Johnson by http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1487 YOU SEEMED HAPPY after the store(we had bought a thousand dollars worth of floorlamps) I laughed and saidlet's have something to drink we went to Houlihan's don't you think I said sipping my beer that our wai http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1488 63 Pages 34 Poems Price: $10.00 PWJ Publishing P.O. Box 238 Tehama, CA 96090 www.wellinghamjones.com ISBN: 0-939221-45-4 Review-Interview By: Charles P. Ries Ellaraine Lockie once again walks the http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1489 David F. Hoenigman first novel Burn Your Belongings. has just been released by Six Gallery Press. Hoenigman is originally from Cleveland but has lived in Tokyo since 1998. Heavily involved in the http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1490 Gloria Mindock, Editor P.O. Box 440357 W. Somerville, MA 02144-3222 www.cervenabarvapress.com Review by Charles P. Ries What do you suppose is in the water in Somerville? Small press publishers are poppin http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1491 Word Riot Fiction Editor Timmy Waldron picks out stories you should put on your reading list this month. To Build a Fire by Jack London Where to find it: Google it Why it's good http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1494 Review by Troy SchoultzIn a bizarro world America, Don Winter would be a superstar, as would any poet of clarity, honesty, and an economy when it comes to the reins of language. But we are stuck in http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1492 View the PDF http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1493