Short, Fast, and Deadly
i59
"Letter by Letter"
Edited by Joseph A. W. Quintela
23 January 2011
Featuring:
Mark James Andrews
Daniel Ryan Baker
Incidentally Bentley
A. T. Greenblatt
Steven Gulzevan
Bruce Harris
James Heflin
mignon ledgard
Adam Lucas
Kenneth Pobo
Jenny Rossi
JY Saville
Eryk Wenziak
Copyright © 2011 by Individual Authors
All Rights Reserved
Letters from Vermont to Phoenix
No, I do not love these mountains, rather they are like the calluses on my feet, they have grown and I would miss the subtle protection.
Ask when I am moving back, and it hurts down to my soles. Everyone is lost in a city, but it takes work in a small town like this everyday.
by Jenny Rossi of Newport
Only Human
Hours in archives deciphering cramped writing and archaic abbreviations, determined to offer further insight into a great man via his personal correspondence. But as I read chronologically through his productive years, imagining the interleaved replies, I found he was after all just a man, by turns great, petty, grumpy, dull, excited. Not the insight I'd been looking for - someone else can reduce him to mortal size.
by JY Saville of Leeds
A Letter Never Written, Never Sent.
Dear Sam,
You told me once that God was in the water. So I dedicated my life after our divorce to the study of His works. A marine biology degree, endless scuba diving, even a few expeditions on research vessels. I was a zealot. But now, trapped at the bottom of the ocean with faulty equipment, I start to doubt those words. And I wonder if you know how dark and empty the ocean can be when you’re alone.
Yours,
Kim
by A. T. Greenblatt of Devon
Tenant
The vampire reads Goethe. He believes all metaphors and insists on oysters after we go to a Broadway show to see his intended's face "illumined, dozed with joy." [sic]
She responds to his notes, questions the fluids. Soon they live it up till dawn. I plan to give him notice then he's gone:
Please to be leaving. No more you hair in sink. Rose not rose. Will to get crate week Tuesday and carpet clean. Goodbye always.
by James Heflin of Easthampton
Love (ends) & (all the while) War (continues in spite of us)
Dear John,
I get the feeling it’s mutual.
Jane
by Eryk Wenziak of North Haven
Dear David Lynch,
Strange dream I had last night...nightclub Blue Velvet...sleazy music...single spotlight on me...open my mouth to sing....instead of words a small blue bird flies out of my mouth...and another, and another...hundreds and hundreds of small blue birds until there is nothing but blue birds everywhere...a world full of small blue birds...David, what does it mean?
Love, Isabella
by Steven Gulzevan of Grosse Pointe Woods
Devil's in the Details
by Daniel Ryan Baker of Eagle River
Alphabetcha
You have to be a letter. Reduce yourself from a name to a letter--less than a letter--blow yourself away into the silence behind a page’s silence. We’ll find you. Initialing documents puffed you up. That’s all over. Your initials got a divorce, don’t speak. Naked, not a single letter will cover you.
by Kenneth Pobo of Media
Letters in Letters
In Cancun, we slip from our calendar of breakfasts at lunch into a private pond to float with notes of laughter that spout from scribbled tantric tunes.
My fingertips are eyes; your skin is mine, and borders fade as letters in letters. Each day, our dusk’s peaceful face smiles as clouds become the bedroom hosts--so delicate, so moist, they kiss us when we kiss and fold their cotton blanket on our naked bodies.
by mignon ledgard of Lima
Ordering Oligonucleotides
I tap out my sequence AGCACT.
I gate triplicates with my right hand, CCT, I tap them in with my left AAT. Caps lock, you are a demi god among function keys. You save me from pincer hand. Pincers indeed. You can get Scorpions now. Molecular entomological fluorescent warfare.
Will it anneal while I FRET? Will it probe or am I to be left unquenched?
Double check. BLAST. AGCACC.
Write drunk, edit sober. Thanks Hemingway.
By Incidentally Bentley of Guildford
To Set a Tone
Hey Bro Boz-
I don’t know unagi from Adam. When I went there I ordered up something with duck in it cause it reminded me of czarnina & my old man always told me to go with what you know. If you do go to this joint sit close by the painting of the almond eyed doll painted pink reclining on a divan with a parrot perched on her left tit. The art-thing got the conversation started & seemed to set a tone.
Luck to you- Z
by Mark James Andrews of Harper Woods
Dear Bald Neighbor Who Keeps Mowing Two Extra Swipes Into My Yard,
Do you really think this makes your lawn look bigger? Where are your freakin ethics? Anyone who would be this deceitful is capable of much worse.
I’m now afraid to leave my car unlocked in the driveway or let my kids play alone in the back yard. I’ve already told them not to accept candy from you. Thinking of which, I’m going to check your name in the sex offender registry right now.
God bless,
Adam Lucas
by Adam Lucas of Charlotte
About the Author
Dear Ms. Ott,
Everything I write is autobiographical. See you soon.
Two weeks prior, Ellen Ott had sent the following letter:
Dear Mr. Byrne,
I don’t usually send fan mail, but I must tell you I am enamored with your fiction. Truly blown away by your creativity. Of course, I’d never want to meet any of the characters you’ve created, after all they are morally reprehensible, scary, and frankly, nuts.
by Bruce Harris of Scotch Plains
Dear Betty C., a question...Hermit--Cookie or Noun?
Even dining alone has become dangerous once, the waitress begins to speak. The daily specials are here but you still are gone. Again I order fish, one for me and one to take home. Maybe they’ll think it’s for someone else. I would like to have children, but it would upset the cat.
by Jenny Rossi of Newport
