Short, Fast, and Deadly

Short, Fast, and Deadly

Issue Three

Edited by Joseph A. W. Quintela

27 December 2009

 

Featuring:

Autumn Adeigbo

Ted Jean

Neila Mezynski

Frank Miller

Daniel Romo

 

Copyright © 2009 by Individual Authors

All Rights Reserved

Relief

Most people
wake up
in the middle of the night
compelled to pee

I woke up
in the middle of the night
compelled to write
about most people

by Daniel Romo of Long Beach

(First Published in Verdad)

Carpenter

When Mike worked in construction his daughter, a baby, was poorly. The woman they circled, skewed. He came into half-ass skill in windows and hanging doors. The money, uneven. A judge took his license unjustly. In his forties, he fell from his bike. Not just the once. The medicine he got, wrong. Work twisted, hammers went missing, his teenager spiraled up and out. But on a given day, biking, he still oddly soared.

By Ted Jean of Milwaukie

A Bit in Prison

a bit is a binary digit
two fucking fingers   a finger cut in half 
metal they jam in a horse’s mouth
doing time that don’t count

by Frank Miller of Bloomington

Behind the Barn

Dolls seated in a row on display. Neatly dressed, nicely vacant. Pink and white peek through the crispy crunch. She left them there, spongy soft, before she changed her mind and heard the barn door close. The matches struck, sharp, bright. Now Bessie has no dolls to play or mind to change with. The barn. Huge and dark as a child’s delight. To close the door. Imagine.

by Neila Mezynski of Campbell

Not Trinity, Trilogy

Death comes in threes. Status Update read, “Fuck My Life”. I didn’t know she was gone forty minutes earlier. She was eleven years old. I taught her first word: Bitch. Cried ‘til there were no more tears. He died one week later. Cancer in three places: his lungs being most crucial. He was 79 when we danced last summer. I missed both funerals. Duty calls. She kicked first. He kicked second. There’s a jerk in my knee.

By Autumn Adeigbo of New York

Fred Astaire's First Ever Would Be Tweet to Ginger Rodgers

@GingerRodgers- shitted. showered. shaved. shall we dance?

by Daniel Romo of Long Beach