They Said I Couldn’t Be Real
They said I couldn’t be a real superhero because my breasts were too small and unperky. I could never fit the required uniform, and my hip-to-waist ratio didn’t conform to the fever pitch of the modern fan-boy’s favorite four-color dreams (not to mention that my lips are neither thick nor pouty and will never be either bee-stung or ruby-red like a certain Amazon queen’s). “But I can fly,” I said, quietly, not quite in quiet unburning tears. And they said, “So can birds and planes and neo-Nazi Zeppelins. It’s not the power that matters, but the...
Read MoreThe Spandex Spider
People don’t realize how lonely the super-life can be. No one to cook dinner or wash your clothes and your costume always in constant need. They don’t see the bruises, the scrapes, the scars. All they hear are the cheers, even when they’re hissing beneath their breath without an ounce of fear. They’ve never watched you eat alone without a mask, microwaving burritos that taste like plastic ash, never knowing your tongue never quite escaped Dimension MAX. They’ve never had to wake up in a strange lair with an atom-splitting headache, trussed upside-down, smelling...
Read MoreThe Road to Anvil Road
is clearly an ACME creation, arrived in pieces, with manual translatable to coyote. Three cliffs with tenuous ledges and a canyon trail clicked. Tab A’s into slot B’s completed ideal spot for high-speed avian ambush. Warning! Elevation: dangerous. The vertical rise distorts perspective, makes targeting alignment calculations skew. The configuration does not allow for wind effects or added weight of steel extras. One pressure change, a few too many Beep Beep’s, and Poof! you are the road-kill sandwich. Accordion bodied, arms and legs all that...
Read MoreThe Secret History of Walter Mitty
The movie starring Ben Stiller tells the story of Walter Mitty, whose daydreams constitute his secret life. The story is from James Thurber, an iconic humorist who died in 1961, leaving behind a passel of great yet mostly forgotten cartoons and essays in The New Yorker, plus the one short story for which he is best known, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” (a brief delight which made it into many high school English textbooks, but was mostly skimmed over by jocks on their way to football practice… since they already knew on which cheek their buns were buttered, having no imagination to...
Read MoreFeatured Works: Week of Dec. 8 (Parents)
Whether you are a parent, have living parents or are remembering parents who have passed on, the winter holiday season tends to highlight those relationships in our minds, for better or worse. In the short story “When Ann Calls” by Nancy Christie, an aging mother longs for a stronger connection with her pregnant daughter. In the poem “Inheritance” by Amy Barone, a daughter is surrounded by remembrances of her mother. In the short story “Ordinary Riches” by Bill Gaythwaite, a teenager clashes with his parents over...
Read MoreOrdinary Riches
A rather reclusive elderly uncle had died in Vermont and left his niece a small inheritance. The windfall was totally unexpected, so the news was met by the niece and her husband and their three sons with an almost giddy fascination. But only Donnie, the youngest boy, knew what they should do about it, as now he presumed they had enough for a down payment on a house he had seen advertised in the classified section of the local newspaper. This was one of Donnie’s pastimes. He often scanned real estate ads with the zeal of a Trappist monk. For years he had yearned for a conventional home...
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