Jonathan’s

It was a cool summers morning. The last bit of starlight was succumbing to the luminous rays of dawn as pink tendrils stretched across the sky. Jacob loved mornings like this. He was a busy man. He oversaw companies and did very important work, so of course he couldn’t be here all the time.

But his common absence made moments like this so extraordinarily special. As the sun rose, Jacob’s and his daughter’s lines lay motionless in the water.

“Do you think we are going to catch something today dad?”

            “Oh yes for sure. I can sense it. I bought us the best bait available” Jacob’s father in law lived in the mountains of Alaska in a Yurt he built himself. He hunted and fished for everything he had, and he had killed two bears in self defense. Jacob’s daughter had spent a summer with him and loved it. So he was trying to be more outdoorsy. Jacob sometimes hurt his nails opening a can zero calorie soda. So, when it came to enterprises into the outdoors, Jacob often found his “go get ‘em” attitude and trademarked perseverance did absolutely nothing for him. He wasn’t exactly an expert fisherman, but decided to go just for the halibut.

            Peanut butter sandwiches were brought out, and amidst the excitement Samantha almost missed the tugging on the line. IN as much shock as joy she yelled “DAD a fish! There’s a fish on your line”

Two things entered Jacob’s mind at once. Number one “Holy carp. That salesman was right” Number two “What in blazes did he do now.” He imagined gutting a fish would be a pain in the bass.

With equal parts trepidation and excitement he pulled the fish in. As he pulled it out of the water he almost gasped. No trout about it, this was a special fish. Bright gold and silver scales twinkled in the morning sun. It reflected hundreds of shimmers all over the boat. His daughter grabbed it and let out an audible “ahhh Dad it’s so pretty.”

“go grab the bucket Samantha” She immediately took off towards the back of the boat and began to rummage. As soon as she turned away, Jacob hear a voice.

“Hey. How’s it going.” In shock Jacob looked at the beautiful fish, who seemed to be looking right at him and smiling. Jacob said nothing.

“Hey, I’m talking to you buddy” The fish was speaking. Jacob was too shocked to respond. “Listen, no joke, swear to cod, I’m a magic fish. Like straight up aint even messing. I’m a magic fish.”

Jacob immediately realized he had been spending too much time at the office lately.

“If you let me go I can give you some wishes. Come on homie, you know you looking for some of them young wishes.” Jacob held the fish astounded, is that true? Could this fish actually grant wishes? AS he thought through this, and wondered what he might ask for, the fish was pulled from his grasp. Samantha had taken the fish and grabbed it by the head. Without hesitation she cut it off the line and proceeded to clean and gut it.

Jacob watched in shock.

“grandad taught me how to do that! But the fish in alaska never screamed when you gut them. This will sure be tasty… Hey, dad. Heloooooo, are you herring me?”

After some lemon and pepper, the fish made a lovely meal for them. Jacob took the next month off of work. If he was hearing fish he must be overworked.

So in the end a wish was granted. Samantha’s.

The Ministers

It had been a month since the Ministers were Called. 

That’s what the people were calling them. The Ministers. People chosen, seemingly randomly and by some unknown force, to be gifted with control over everything that kept the city running. Most had already been found by the public at this point.

The Answer

He asked for the  right hand. So many different things had been asked. Some had given up their health, others their son, still others everything they had. Some regretted their choice, bitterly ruminating over their sacrifice. Some left saddened and rejected, unable to part with what had been offered them. A few, however, glowed with contentment from their answer. They gave the rest of us hope.

Her hands were calloused as she was a nationally recognized flute player. Jessica the Fluter, they called her. Without her right hand she would not be able to play my songs, and reduced to a beggar and a pauper.

Without hesitation, She cut if off. She heard a laugh and saw a man. He opened a package and gave her a Twinkie.

 

She unwrapped it smiling, it had all been worth it.

The Price

Her right hand.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Lady Godiva was the beautiful, young wife of Leofric, one of the all-powerful lords who ruled in England approximately 700 years ago. Prior to marriage, she was a rich landowner who loved the people of her villages, especially those in Coventry, one of her most valuable properties. The adored her in return and always knew her to be a kind and fair landlord.

Sides of a Coin

Palen walked ahead of Trisana, his shoulders hunched and head low as he stalked through the trees,

Twenty Something Cutting Truism

1. You need to cut the apron strings
2. Stop cutting up in class
3. I like the cut of his jib
4. I am on the cutting-edge
5. Cut the crap!
6. Cut your ear off and you’re a kook. Paint a picture of yourself with your earcut off and you’re an artist.
7. Cutting off a mule’s ears doesn’t make it a horse. – Creole
8. You cancut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming. – Pablo Neruda
9. Be careful when constantly taking “Short cuts”. For eventually you will be “Cut short”
10. There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them. – Vicki Baum
11. Sometimes you might need tocut off your finger in order to save your hand.
12. After being cut off mid sentence: I’m sorry, did the middle of my sentence interrupt the beginning of yours?
13. Daylight savings time is like cutting 24″ off the top of your blanket and sewing it to the bottom to keep your feet warm!
14. When I get depressed Icut myself ….. a piece of cheesecake.
15. When life gives you lemons…..cut them into slices and put them in your corona.
16. A small axecan cut down a big tree
17. Nevercut what you can untie.
18. If you want tocut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage. – Margaret Thatcher
19. Trust everybody, butcut the cards.
20. Cut my pizza pie into four pieces, I don’t think I could eat eight. – Yogi Berra
21. There are no shortcuts to any place worth going – Helen Keller
22. Religion is like a knife: you can either use it tocut bread, or stick in someone’s back. – Desmond Tutu
23. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers who cancut through the argument debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.
    — Colin Powell
24. Without thinking, she cut it off

 

 

A Bargain

The fish have stopped swimming
The birds have stopped singing
My heart has stopped beating
At least I’m still thinking

He’s standing there, grinning

My stomach jumps in me
He looks at me simply
His suit is just pristine
SHe lays, still bleeding

His teeth sharpen, grinning.

A deal is muttered
My voice stutters
A contract flutters
My pen ruptures

He hands me his, grinning.

The paper flashes as I sign
Her breathing catches, her blood dried
Her eyes are matchless, she looks at mine
I show my sadness, a love resigned

He laughs aloud, grinning

Blood bursts from my shirt
Red runs down to the dirt
She sits up, I fall
Her mouth open, she calls

He walks away, grinning

The Bystanders

The wolfbrother sat quietly by the side of the river. The water flowed quickly but not smoothly, like a running mob, anxious to get away from where it was, but unsure as to where it went. This water used to be so smooth. But now it is as a man’s face, grown harsh with age. 

2105, Montana

To the tune of Colors of the Wind

You think I’m a bloodthirsty savage
You’ve only lived in a bunker
Of course you’d think that’s so.
But I will help you see.
I’m forced into savagery.
And there is so much that you don’t know.
You don’t know.

They decimated the place that they landed on
Our corpses were just shells for them to claim.
I witnessed the death of every creature
Flinner Smops, Lords of all, is their name.

It’s hard to tell the people who are people
Flinner Smops can look and sound just like you
They possessed my mother, so she was a stranger
I learned things I never knew that I could do

Have you ever heard the widow cry after you killed her boo?
Or slit your mothers throat, while she grinned?
Can you screech with the fury of a banshee?
Can you paint with all the fluids held within?
Can you paint with all the fluids held within?

Come run for your life or hide in the forest.
Come taste the sweet flesh of someone just birthed
Come roll in the all gore laid all around you.
And be plagued by feelings of low self-worth

The fish have stopped swimming in the river
The voices in my head are my only friends.
And we are all connected to each other

Flinner Smops, Lords of all, in the end.