Short, Fast, and Deadly

Short, Fast, and Deadly
Issue Two
Edited by Joseph A. W. Quintela
Copy Edited by Anna Swanson
20 December 2009

Featuring:
Tina Barry
Al Bruno III
Neil Ellman
H
Shashidhar
Jake Sibley

Copyright 2009 by Individual Authors
All Rights Reserved

Suppose

Suppose, just suppose
We were like the moon
We were the moon in fact
Becoming full of our own conceits

We are the moon

by Neil Ellman of Livingston

One Bag of Popcorn

"Dad’s a dick," my sister said. I nodded. He threw $20 on the candy counter for one small bag of popcorn and told the girl to keep the change. Of course, she was cute and, like, sixteen. Then he sat there, eating it and fidgeting. I wasn’t surprised when he got up 10 minutes into the movie and mumbled something about too much blood and gore.

"Get me a box of Junior Mints," I told him.

by Tina Barry of Brooklyn

Tethered

don't call me names Form said, undulating

strip me, make me whole

 

Place asked where?

here...now...now moaned Time

 

the depths climaxed

to become I

 

by Shashidhar of Thissur

Girls and Trains

A train passed me today. I was at the end of the platform and the amber lights on the display flashed: "Not Taking Passengers". I knew a girl like that once. At the time, I was a passenger type of a guy. Down in the tube she held me late for my next stop, then disappeared down the black tunnel. But I couldn't chase her. 

The raven girl from the south cost me time, sleep, and soul. She took her leave out in the open.

by H of London

Patience

Seasons are
moved
by the whimsical sweep of
a butterfly wing,
the dogged rasp of a caterpillar jaw,
the epic silence of a
waiting chrysalis.
 
by Jake Sibley of San Diego

The Local Heroes: Single-Celled Vigilante

Amoeba-Man stalked along the rooftops near the River City Museum knowing that if the Shellfish Gang was going to try and steal the treasures of Nephren-Ka it would have to be tonight. Sure enough, a suspicious-looking van pulled up in front of the building and a gang of Mollusk-ish thugs piled out. There were a lot of them, but if there was one thing Amoeba-Man knew how to do, it was to divide and conquer.

by Al Bruno III of High Point