Arms open wide under the hum of burning stars,  Breezes nose My silhouette For your scent   I fill my lungs with air Steel my muscles   Wind rumbles To a raging roar Flames bullet  From the sky, Tiny fireballs  Spearing my flesh Tattered dress flaying  My screaming wounds   I close my eyes, Unable to feel your touch Unable to hear your voice But our vows remain, Etched as ever   The earth knows I know You know   There’s...

Cold bit Arianna’s face as she squinted against the sun. Gloved hands shoved into the front pockets of her puffy coat, she looked for a form in the mountains. A dot on the snow skirts, something moving in the shadowy tree stems. Ari exhaled, steaming the crushing silence. For three days, she’d watched the horizon. The snowmobile she’d parked next to the cabin seemed to beckon louder every sunrise. She balled her hands int...

Dave peeked around the living room entranceway to peer at the front door.  When he saw the blonde hair, the eyes looking at him through the decorative glass, he stepped back out of sight. Shit.   “…Richelle’s argumentative and abrasive, just like her mother.  Neither have a God damn filter.  She’s going to be a horrible influence on Dawn,” his wife said over coffee that morning, just after their daughter left for school....

Pulsing walls of bodies and sin Line our altar of flame   Strangers’ hands On my skin On yours   Swirling their cum with my sweat Lining the curves of muscle and bone In the flesh you own   Your thrusts clap like snare drums Through my desperate, moaning song Shadows strobe in huffs over your body As you fill and release me Then flickers of light possess your eyes   “Suck him.”   Adoring Jealous Dominant Over the cascades...

Mia buffed the huge wooden cross in the white basement, deltoids aching as she remembered last night’s muffled cries.  The debased satisfaction she knew the clients always felt with Baun.  She’d hated every moment of listening to it, though a part of her always wished the mess she cleaned was messier.   Sighing, she wiped her brow with her forearm.  Took a few steps back, looking at the cross from every angle to make sure...

A scratch Hiss Burst of flame   Thorns twist in my ribs, The wounds like an old friend As I lower the match to the blackened wick   Fire jumps to the stiff braid Blazing in tandem Until I pull back   I blow, Extinguishing the match, Surrendering to isolation   The candlelight burns on Crackles and sways Wax weeping, eroding   Shadows flicker  across my skin Over the empty room   Your ghost whispers in echoes, Ricocheting...

Parked under a buzzing, stroked out streetlamp, I looked down the street.  People moved slowly in the night, shadows slinking among shadows.  The occasional cars’ headlights made them scuttle like roaches.   Home.   My limbs were heavy, the darkness inside me begging to take over.  Leaning back in my seat, I pushed the prescription bottle deep into my panties until I felt its hard round shape between my pussy lips.  Years...

I’d spent the entire funeral avoiding her and now her incestual hands were around my mother. Standing with a plate of baked-from-scratch cinnamon rolls, Kara rubbed my mom’s back as she cried.  The picture of poise, her blonde hair hung in a loose waves from her shoulders.  A boat necked black dress hugged her curves, the skirt stopped just above her knees.  Her make up was a sheen of perfection. Mom was a mess.  Couldn’t...

The red light glared at me.  I glared back.   A faded blue sedan squeaked into the gas station on the corner, engine rattling as it parked.  It shut off, the intersection quiet again.  A man stepped out, limp-swaggered inside.  The door’s bell chime was clear across the empty streets. Still the traffic light was red.  Redder, if possible.  More insistent.   No cameras perched on top, no one around to care.  What’s it matt...

Few things live In this garden of  Thirsting flowers   Petals scattered  Like headstones Among cracked, Disintegrated  Stems Shattered skeletons Of tree branches  Lying on powdered dirt   Dogs may tear every limb Time may desecrate it all   But warmth beats  Below the surface Stretches in the fingers of roots Crackles into the dried veins Of the forgotten  And with every bit murdered Every part abandoned   It still belong...

The photographers’ shadows stretched toward her across the dying front lawn like fingers in the fading hours of daylight.  All cameras pointed at their house.   Leah let the blinds go with a metallic clack.  Turning away, she raked her fingers through her hair and met her husband’s blue eyes.  Grimaced.  “I keep waiting for them to go away.” “Give it time.”  Chris's thin lips turned up in a smile.  His calloused hands str...

Roxanne touched her lips as she stared into the bedroom mirror.  It was as if the ghost of his kiss lingered through the nights between their dates.  Each time he held back.  Each time she pressed him harder.  Talked dirtier.   How long am I supposed to be cool about this before I jump his bones? She looked into the mirror at her body.  Arms covered in tattoos with two big pieces on her thighs.  Her hip bones stood out ju...

The girl was gone. Rolling the plastic die in the crook of his hand, Jesse’s gaze rested on the cocoa skinned beauty tending bar in Roxanne’s absence. Her deltoids flexed as she shook the ice and liquid in the shaker. She uncapped it to pour the watermelon colored liquid in a dainty martini glass and glanced across the bar at him. Jesse focused on his book. A discussion of poetry and prose. Always the English teacher. It...

It was in the massive white walls, track lighting, and spotless, glittering objects of Williams Sonoma that Henri’s world stopped.    His eyes had caught on a crystal sconce perfect for the cozy, romantic eating area in the wine cellar of his family’s bed and breakfast.  He turned to survey the side of its rope-like motif when he heard two men murmuring to each other. They meandered up the little hallway between the bedro...

Two more months. She sank into the old leather couch.  Soothing piano notes floated from her little speaker onto the stale air’s unclaimed molecules, lifting the dim house’s oppression.  Turning, she brushed back the flimsy curtains to let the light in, only to notice goopy bodies of dried paint around the window.  Tiny holes in the walls glared like beady black eyes.  She looked down at the floor she’d installed while pr...