“The Midwest revealed itself as an endless series of farms: vast fields of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa spread even and green over hundreds of acres. In a far corner of the expansive fields squatted a two-story, white-clapboard farmhouse on whose square-columned porch sat a rocking chair and beside it, a swing attached by chains to […]
Continue reading“Sometimes, when he found himself inspired, Skylar overcame the combined influences of submission-to-a-hard-fate, fatigue, mild depression, and serious self-pity and arose like Lazarus, came out of his bedroom cave, and went for a walk. He loved these walks. A light shining out from the window of a house on a distant block evoked feelings of […]
Continue reading“The world’s weight, which had, throughout his life, cut into Skylar’s shoulders painfully like a bamboo pole supporting the heavy water buckets carried by a frail village woman, disappeared and with it, the world itself. Remaining motionless against the pillows, eyes shut, the experimenter did not come face-to-face-with (for there was no opposition of self […]
Continue reading“Romance—and physical contact formed the pith of romance to the youth—was a matter of timelessness; one had to forget the world and time and lose oneself in the worship, the divine magic, of the loved one. One had to fall deeply into a trance of childlike discovery, encountering and appreciating each new treat as if […]
Continue reading“The sounds of “Marrakesh Express” filled the room. The song captured the carefree joy known only by a child: the joy that makes kids join hands and begin to spin round in circles until they fall, dizzied, to the ground in wild laughter. It had the joy of a nursery-rhyme jingle, the effervescence of empty […]
Continue reading“The sun stood behind them. A beam of its light struck the overlaid chevrons of lapis and turquoise in the ring on Roberto’s index finger, causing the blue arrowheads to scintillate. Following the gleaming apex of the stone, the student’s sight line took him to a strange cloud formation in the west: a circle of […]
Continue readingFor the 4th of July: “South Carolina Tourist Trap” from “Remembering Eternity”: “Each of the corners of the square building had the shape of a rocket, with a turret for its cone. Oversize state and national flags hung limp from poles at least fifty feet high. The entire building had been painted red, white, and […]
Continue reading“Whenever he looked at a finely formed woman, Skylar experienced a sort of soul pain: the encounter with perfection hurt. He reasoned that circuits of his soul must have lacked the capacity to channel the charge, the raw power, of flawless beauty. When nature shone in all her glory, one had to lower one’s eyes. […]
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