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At The Bottom Of a Well by Brad MacDuff

He finds himself at the bottom of a well. Not that he’s fallen in – his was a slow descent. The walls are tight and the air is close. He knows he built these walls, dug himself into this pit, but tha… 147 words

Hyacinth and Thistle by Brad MacDuff

She lay awake, thinking about nothing and everything; of cotton and chaos, of hyacinth and thistles. Traffic droned outside. Traffic always droned. Headlights cast patterns across the ceiling; they m… 572 words

The Roar Of Life by Brad MacDuff

My grandfather used to tell me that the ocean was hidden inside every shell. / “If you hold a shell to your ear, you can hear the waves,” he’d said. / “Shells remember their h… 362 words

One More Day of Waiting by Brad MacDuff

She felt small – a wish in a well, a dust mote in a sunbeam. She knew she flared, but her size made the flash go unseen. People passed her, took no notice, left her rippling in her well or swir… 384 words

Untitled by Brad MacDuff

I walked tonight; upon streets that haven’t seen the soles of my feet for more than a decade. There’s something about putting one foot in front of the other, a simple act, a balancing ac… 153 words

She Can't Remember Her Dreams by Brad MacDuff

She awakens in the grass again – wine stained teeth and tear stained eyes. She wears the juice of kumquats like sticky orange gloves – the same glossy sugar coats her lips. There is a son… 492 words

I Miss My Muse by Brad MacDuff

I miss my muse. / I’ve looked everywhere for her / under stairs and stars, / in branches, / behind waterfalls and ribs, / in reflections; / oily puddles / mirrors / and glassy eyes. / I&#… 139 words

Morning Cup by Brad MacDuff

His plan was perfect. He’d spent months polishing it, weeks buffing it, and the last few hours making it gleam. There had been fear, sure. Doubt? Most certainly – but that was all behind … 346 words

Night #2 by Brad MacDuff

His shadow had a different voice beneath the moon. It was cold, like the light that cast it. / “What is it you want?” his shadow asked. / “I want to know what to do,” the boy … 337 words

True Blue by Brad MacDuff

Danny was born blue. His mother and father were green and did everything by the book, “Raising Children For Green Parents.” There were no chapters on blue babies, except for the one about… 772 words

Days Like Today by Brad MacDuff

Some mornings the mist is so thick that the lake fades into the sky – everything is lost in a cloud of white. To step from the shore is it fall into the heavens. At such a time, in such a place… 334 words

Dawn #1 by Brad MacDuff

The boy spoke to his shadow because he knew it would listen. People were different. They could feign interest and go elsewhere in their minds. His shadow though, it was always attentive, always eager… 366 words

When Your Heartstrings Finally Break by Brad MacDuff

When your heartstrings finally break, there will be no noise, no twang, no sigh of release. The sound will be felt, not heard. It will rend the last of what it means to be whole, reduce the noun to a… 264 words

Afternoon at the Abbotoire by Brad MacDuff

The place stank. Not just the smell of animals, but the special, sweaty stink of fear. It permeated the air. I paused, half out of the car as the smell grabbed at my tonsils. Eric slammed his door. H… 2283 words

Simple Truth by Brad MacDuff

He looked more tired than old, but the end result was the same. His skin was ashen – not quite gray, but a non color that made me weak to see. His wrinkles were deeper, cracks in baked mud, and… 517 words

Lie To Me by Brad MacDuff

The sky darkened and music sprang up from the small restaurant behind. It was thin music, stretched over too much outside sound to be anything more than an annoyance. 677 words

Woods #3 by Brad MacDuff

The woods were blacker than the space behind his eyes. The boy could not see his shadow, there was no light to cast it. / “Are you there?” he asked. / “Yes,” said several voic… 441 words

The Home of Lost Things by Brad MacDuff

Perhaps he’d been here long enough that the ocean had permeated his flesh and left him a relic of Gomorrah. 760 words

I'd Rather Dance Than Talk With You by Brad MacDuff

There is a pulse, a beat, a steady thrum that controls his every move. He doesn’t walk, he dances – he caresses the ground with his feet and the ground rises to meet his touch. Everything is song. / … 197 words

I Don't Need To Carry Them Anymore by Brad MacDuff

the ghosts from my past / are always with me / I carry them in all I do / I’ve tried burying them / tried to forget them / they always resurface / they always haunt / my earth is too soft / the… 160 words

It's Only Rain by Brad MacDuff

Once / she fell with the rain / Every drop carried her touch / her perfume / her kiss / It was enough to walk in the rain / He didn’t miss her when water fell from the sky / or hissed on the roads / … 142 words

Winter by Brad MacDuff

He walks through the snow. His boots make cornstarch squeaks in the white, his breath a dragon’s plume in the blue. He has a nose, but the sensation of it is lost. His ears went first, then his… 257 words

The Smallest Life... by Brad MacDuff

He looked for it; lifted his feet and scanned the gleaming sidewalk. He spun, full circle, searching for the smallest life that could feel pain. 806 words

What's Left Behind by Brad MacDuff

Her medical report came back clean. The doctors had found nothing unusual. Not that she expected them to. What was broken went beneath tissue and bone. The wound could not be cauterized or sutured – … 1270 words

Valley #5 by Brad MacDuff

The boy closed his eyes before stepping into the forest. He knew what darkness awaited, and did not want it to seep beneath his lids. The whispering was gone. The shadows of the world were left in th… 592 words

The Ocean at Night by Brad MacDuff

The ocean at night is huge. During the day, it ends in a horizon. At night it spills into the sky, washes clean the stars and makes their tiny light brighter. I sat there last night, at the shore of … 110 words

It's All Illusion by Brad MacDuff

It was hot – not the pleasant hot of a summer day at the beach, no, this was a day made from unset gelatin. There was no walking through this day, only wading through the greasy pulp. It stuck.… 1092 words

Empty Space by Brad MacDuff

The drawer was painted shut by time. I thought the brass knob would tear through the wood before the rails broke and the drawer slid free. The knobs themselves were too small to get a proper grip on,… 458 words

The Little Ease by Brad MacDuff

Sampson had his mother’s hair and his father’s hands. Indeed, his entire body was a roadmap to his genealogy – a walking testament to his past. The only thing that belonged to him was the voice. Not … 491 words

One by Brad MacDuff

“We are but the total of our longings,” he said. / “That’s a lot,” I replied. / “For some. For others the number is a single digit, prime and indivisible. For othe… 148 words

I Drove by Brad MacDuff

I drove, and thought about you. What were you doing, right at that moment? Were you smiling? Were you happy? Were you thinking of me, of us? The questions kept coming, I found I had no answers, and … 359 words

Home by Brad MacDuff

“Home is where you find yourself,” she said. / “I find myself every morning then,” he said. “Whiskers don’t shave themselves in the dark.” / “That̵… 102 words

Paper Wings by Brad MacDuff

It was a moonless night and the fire was high against the darkness. The air was cold, but the heat from the flames kept back the frost and scorched leaves from reaching trees. He worked, shirtless, w… 348 words

Spaces Between Words by Brad MacDuff

It’s a hunger – a directionless urge to consume… something… anything to fill the void. He searches, a wraith, a shadow upon a cave wall – nothing satisfies. At night the… 333 words

The-Not-So-Mad-Anymore-Hatter by Brad MacDuff

“I’m not mad. Not anymore. I recognize madness and that makes me happy. Madness is doing what you hate for little bits of paper and metal. Madness is living in fear and hiding from joy. S… 516 words

Dragonboats by Brad MacDuff

It’s raining outside. Somewhere in the city, dragonboats are slicing through the river as people watch in the rain. Their reflections blurred in the coffee colored water – smudges of yell… 204 words

The Hermit by Brad MacDuff

When she’d set out, she didn’t expect to find him. She took the words of the naysayers to heart, secreted their doubts and carried them with her into the forest. She had to try though. To… 1125 words

Waiting For Ulysses by Brad MacDuff

Some nights he manages to fight the call. He closes his eyes and finds sleep before the rumbling in his blood drives him from bed. Some nights he can sleep, and some nights he can even dream. He like… 469 words

Bones From The Past by Brad MacDuff

Time is slippery, it expands and contracts, it is determined by velocity, measured by ticking hands on a face. The span of souls is weighed in springs and cogs. Does the gray in my hair match my cale… 320 words

Collections by Brad MacDuff

She strikes a match against it, cups the tiny flame, and casts it into her collection of weight. 537 words

Blue Sky? by Brad MacDuff

It’s raining outside. I remember when the sky was blue. Now it’s heavy and low, pressing with the ache of it all. She died on Sunday, and it’s been raining since. It feels like it’s always been raini… 53 words

The Keeper of Dreams by Brad MacDuff

He feels the weight of the sky. It presses like a cold slab of iron and digs into his sunken shoulders. He tells himself that the sky is constant, no heavier today than any other day, but it’s … 318 words

Easy by Brad MacDuff

“It’s easy,” he says. “Like riding a bike.” / “I can’t ride a bike,” she says. “I never learned.” / “Can you dance?” / “A… 225 words

The Sage by Brad MacDuff

“How long will it take?” asked the boy. / “You will know it all by tomorrow,” said the sage. / “Tomorrow,” the boy blinked. The sage nodded. / “But that is impossible,” said the boy. “There is too mu… 1067 words

Hardboiled by Brad MacDuff

It was darker than a carload of assholes, and smelled much the same. Pulpmills and breweries – the air was thick with their stink; the city sweated it in the shady spots, oozed through alleys l… 733 words

Paper Wings Part Two by Brad MacDuff

He worked without reprise. The boat took him away from everything – friends, family, life. He worked through the endless night, adding wood to the fire to guide his hand. He let it consume him.… 433 words

A Candle by Brad MacDuff

He found his head in his hands. It fit, but it was heavy. His thoughts had weight, bowed his neck and cradled a myth wrapped in hope. Within his skull he held a candle against the dawn, a shadow to … 372 words

Sunlight by Brad MacDuff

Sebastian is an odd character. He knows he’s odd, and that only amplifies his oddness. He seems to revel in the uncomfortable squirming of the ’Sunday’s best’ dressed. His eye… 453 words

Perception by Brad MacDuff

She sits with her coffee cupped in two hands, cradling the heat and huddling over the steam. At first glance, she appears oblivious to those around her. Her eyes stare into her mug, but there is clar… 558 words

Get me away from here, I'm dying... by Brad MacDuff

I knew all the songs. / I knew all the people. / It was my favorite place, / my favorite music, / I stayed long enough / not to be rude / and left when no one was looking 33 words

Pay Attention by Brad MacDuff

Not a single soul has ever lived this moment, in this place, like you are doing so now. Appreciate that fact, take responsibility for it, and above all else – pay attention. Nothing worse can b… 104 words

Adrift by Brad MacDuff

A spotlight sweeps across the sky – a cosmic windshield wiper, a metronome of things without beat. It swings, back and forth, so loud in its brightness that it can be heard with eyes closed. / … 145 words

One End by Brad MacDuff

I drive. / When thoughts get too much / I flee them in pavement / There are as many roads / as there are rivers… / they must all / eventually / meet / at the same point. / an / asphalt / Atlantic / a… 43 words

Toys From Above by Brad MacDuff

In the false glow from the city, I saw blood pooling around her, tracing the grout in the tiles, painting a grid away from her body. 569 words

The Man #7 by Brad MacDuff

The boy stood before the abyss, before his shadow, before himself. The darkness swallowed the sublime and devoured infinity. It was all. / “What is this,” whispered the boy. / “This… 630 words

A ghost... by Brad MacDuff

“Who are you?” she asked. Stars shone in her eyes and wonder painted her voice. / “I am a ghost,” he said. / “You’re not a ghost,” she smiled. / “I wil… 185 words

Life in a Box by Brad MacDuff

The moon is full. It paints the night around it a velvety purple and Venus is a beauty mark on the left cheek of the sky. It seems to hang, this frosty sphere, high above the apex of it all. / But it… 372 words

Morokat by Brad MacDuff

There was typhoon this weekend. It swept over Taiwan, flipped cars, flooded streets, tore trees from the earth, and made the ocean angry. Boats were swallowed, fishermen drowned. An entire village wa… 327 words

Wide Eyed and Gap Toothed by Brad MacDuff

“The rich will always be rich, and the poor will always be poor,” he says. I seem to always remember him sitting in that special light just before the sun sets, in the secret space where … 403 words

Seventeen by Brad MacDuff

He thought the door was closed. He never looked at it, simply convinced himself that it was shut. And barred. And locked and left to rust. / He found it again, by accident, when a breeze tickled his … 278 words

Soap Bubble In The Sea by Brad MacDuff

It rained for most of the day. Not the lazy rain of summer but the torrent of early spring. It was a storm designed to drive living things from the earth, to shake the world from winter. It was rain … 511 words

It Knows... by Brad MacDuff

You’re flying. / It’s simple. / It’s blue. / It’s free. / Up? / Down? / Who cares? / Really? / Dimensions / hold no sway… / … / … / … / Then it comes. … 231 words

Untitled by Brad MacDuff

I found myself in the bathroom mirror tonight. I’d forgotten I was even here, but when I put my toothbrush down, there I was. At first I wasn’t sure what I was seeing – there was so… 134 words

Impaired Vision by Brad MacDuff

He kept kittens in boxes – black boxes with no windows. He kept them in the dark for 23 hours a day. For one hour of 24, he placed them in a smaller box, collar’s on their necks that kept… 265 words

Wandering and Wondering by Brad MacDuff

There are no stars to be seen. They are there, but their lights have been swallowed by the city’s glow – little needles of sodium unstitch the seams of the sky. Too many shadows are cast … 359 words

The Bazaar by Brad MacDuff

It wasn’t the wind that bothered me, it was the whisper beneath. I heard it through the fine hairs on my neck – they stood at attention with each gust and told me that something wasn̵… 1113 words

Tuesday, the 17th by Brad MacDuff

The horns outside tell you you’re awake. Cars never honk in your dreams; they just run you down and lay you flat. You know you’re awake, but you keep your eyes closed. You want to hold on… 576 words

The Home of Lost Things - Part II by Brad MacDuff

Trying to ignore it, he thought, or trying to run from my own darkness… is like trying to keep the daylight from the sun. 716 words

Dreams of Olympus Mons by Brad MacDuff

He wasn’t afraid of heights. It was edges that bothered him. He never trusted himself not to jump. The edge didn’t need to be physical; he’d jumped from metaphors before. All it needed to be was ther… 210 words

The Home of Lost Things - Part III by Brad MacDuff

“Because,” said the man, weariness returning to his frame and voice, “You can only leave once.” 1559 words

Meadow #4 by Brad MacDuff

The boy walked, eyes closed against the darkness, until time was a word that rolled around in his mind – nothing more than a collection of letters and sound. Where did it come from? Whose word … 745 words

The Windy City by Brad MacDuff

The wind was strong but directionless. It swirled through the city stirring up dust and smog, bending trees and lifting leaves. Debris danced about in spirals as people danced about in annoyance R… 357 words

An enduring testament to the impermanence of walls by Brad MacDuff

It was an impressive stone, jutting out against the advancing ocean – an old man raising his fist against the inevitable decay of everything. 809 words

Untitled by Brad MacDuff

“I get angry,” he said. It was hot, and the leather chair stuck to his skin. / “Why do you get angry?” she asked, pen in hand and eyes on her notepad. / “Sometimes IR… 244 words

A wafer of light by Brad MacDuff

She doesn’t want to remember the things she can never forget. / They find her in her sleep, / haunt her dreams and peace. / They are restless and drive her the same. / Never a moment, / no … 102 words

Yoske by Brad MacDuff

My friend may have died, I don’t know. He played saxophone at a local jazz club. He was good, or is still good. Not the hair raising life altering good… yet, or possibly ever… it al… 149 words

Some Days by Brad MacDuff

Some days were just bad. He knew this by the age of twelve. Some days it didn’t matter how optimistic you were, how bright and sunny the sky, or how much money you had in your pocket. Sometimes… 1057 words

Dead Stars by Brad MacDuff

The sky fell into the sea today. The sun dragged it down; hooked a cloud with a flare and stretched heaven ’til it tore. It made no splash as it sank through the foam and the blue – only… 325 words

The Home of Lost Things IV by Brad MacDuff

The boy stood at the threshold of the wood, staring into the false night beneath the leaves. 1805 words

Abyss #6 by Brad MacDuff

The mists closed softly behind the boy – they stole his senses and filled the world with hushed white. He could feel the ground beneath his feet, pressing up against each foot as he walked. The… 758 words

The Knocking of Hands by Brad MacDuff

There seems to be a lag from my eyes to my brain, or perhaps I’m thinking fast enough to watch the light move from the screen to my pupil. 793 words

A Good Night by Brad MacDuff

Last night I walked in the snow and saw my breath for the first time in years. It rose like a dragon’s plume; my shoes made cornstarch sounds beneath the streetlights . They’re always fr… 165 words

Transition by Brad MacDuff

It’s raining today – the pounding thrum of a tropical storm, the kind that transforms roads to rivers, puddles into lakes, and days into seas too far to cross. I listen for a beat in the … 111 words

Waiting by Brad MacDuff

Sitting and waiting to peer out a window at 30,000 feet. Waiting for the now familiar taste of recycled air. Waiting for tiny chairs, big hips, and crying children – bad movies, worse meals, an… 93 words

Insert Dream Here by Brad MacDuff

You’re not convinced that someone doesn’t reach into your head at night and steal your dreams. Some nights they cut them up and slip them back in, other nights they just leave an empty sp… 336 words

Pedestal by Brad MacDuff

“When you reach for something, you put it on a pedestal,” he said. They were words he’d never heard before, nor spoken, yet he knew that they were true. / “What have you reach… 138 words

Truth by Brad MacDuff

Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living, but the same is true of the over examined life. It’s possible to dig, getting ever deeper, ever smaller, until all that’s left … 151 words

Dying Slowly by Brad MacDuff

He pushed my buttons. I saw him doing it, watched him as he prodded each one. I was too tired to do anything but watch. I made each button light up just to see him move to the next. I was a voyeur. T… 263 words

On Knowledge by Brad MacDuff

If one ceases to learn even the simplest of things, the spirit begins to atrophy. Passion dies. Bitterness breeds. Stagnation blossoms, and with it, the meaning of life is lost. 263 words

Sometimes by Brad MacDuff

Sometimes it’s enough to see the waves / enough to smell the trees / and taste the rain / Sometimes it’s enough to remember / only the good / and forget the pain / Sometimes it’s … 48 words

The Man Who Spoke With Skins by Brad MacDuff

Their conversation was sparse, like pigeons against the sky, but the sound of his voice made her aware of an empty space within her chest. 998 words

Nepal, day 1 by Brad MacDuff

It was called the Excelsior – the kind of hotel that had begun like a faded memory and aged from there. A uniformed security guard stood at the entrance. He looked a lot like Fred Ward. Do you … 1367 words