Short, Fast, and Deadly

Short, Fast, and Deadly
Issue Twenty
Edited by Joseph A. W. Quintela
25 April 2010

Featuring:
Shelby Davis
Travis A. Everett
David E. Haase
Dan Rako
Edward Rathke
Robert Vaughan

Copyright © 2010 by Individual Authors
All Rights Reserved

You and I, the ingredients,

are trying
to make love
without a recipe-
just a list of things
we’ll need: kitchen,
table, heat, lips,
lips, tongues
and teeth.

by Travis A. Everett of Lubbock

Booze Anecdote #37

At thirteen months old, Daniel had his twelfth surgery. Jill spent the first three nights on the couch in his hospital room. I guess night four was my turn. My mother-in-law found the fifth I had in my overnight bag. She was...non-plussed. The flask in my coat went undetected-until 2:00 am, when the nurse popped in. She was non-plussed as well, but at least I'm not still hearing about it from her eleven years later.

by Dan Rako of New Albany

Gone Before Dawn

On the sofa, fuzzy thoughts. He recalls his dream, an epic voyage, how did it end?

 
They trounce downstairs flushed, breathless, cocoon intact. Smell like the other, a field of fresh wheat.  "Morning sleepyhead."

 

She flicks on the TV, the Today Show. Guests talk about spouses who died as they lay next to them.

 

Without realizing, he ends his dream this way.

 
by Robert Vaughan of River Hills

Hibernation

The lid slid back above him, and he sat up in a cloud of vapor. So bright. "Welcome back, stranger," said the tech, grinning. He turned, the lid slid back, and he sat up in a cloud of vapor. So bright. "Welcome back, stranger," said the tech. He turned, the lid slid back, and he sat up in a cloud of vapor. So very bright. "Welcome back, stranger," said the tech.

 
"Damn it," he said, "It’s only funny the first time."
 
by Shelby Davis of Dayton

Burnt Flesh Symmetry

striking matches in
absinthe of light
 
sulfurious skin
eluminates shrink
wrap shadows
 
by David E. Haase of Denver

Booze Anecdotes #38 & #39

When I had my first gout attack, my doctor told me to cut down on my meat and alcohol consumption. I knew I wasn't going to drink less, so I began eating a vegan diet.

At Disney World, I didn't go to the park with my family. I sat in a bar, got drunk, and watched the Buckeyes lose. Feeling guilty, I decided football was the problem. I didn't watch a football game for years.

That was my best thinking at the time.

by Dan Rako of New Albany

The Fall

I told her that angels live in the sky and watch over her. A flashed eruption between the blushing sun and the smirking moon. Smoke billowed, chasing the plummeting holocaust towards the earth. She held my hand tight and pointed. I picked her up and we watched the casket pyre crash into the horizon. Her eyes were glass when she asked me if angels die.

by Edward Rathke of St. Paul