Alphabet Town
Fee arrives on a street filled with trash.
Rows of ugly houses stretch out on each side. Graffiti and the unique way each is destroyed set them apart. Some are black with smoke damage. Some have doors kicked-in. Some look like they could sell for heaps, if not for the numerous holes in the roofs. Hums fill the air. Somewhere, something electrical is shot. A live wire could kill someone at any moment, but no one lives in a deserted town with graffiti sprayed on every wall, at least, no one that Fee would like to see again.
The Inkless and the Inked
Alice and I fought clean. Well, we rarely fought. But when we did it was dealt with cleanly: not like most couples. Dennis, my buddy, he was a dirty fighter. He struggled tooth-and-nail with his fiancé, and they were due to be married for God’s sake. I mean, he would never lay a hand on her, he’s a stand-up guy in that sense, but when they fought it wouldn’t matter who was around. His fiancé could have tears in her eyes and be struggling to speak through hiccups, but there was no relenting for Dennis. I could never do that. If I saw tears I’d be finished, forget ‘right,’ case closed. Dennis never directly called me a pussy for it, but he did insinuate. And after all of those hardnosed insinuations I thought I’d better learn to stomach tears, like a “man.” I thought Alice might even like it. Like I said, we rarely fought anyway, but for when we did, maybe I ought to do it right— right? My buddies seemed to think so, Dennis most of all.
B. John Gully is a literary fiction writer from New York.
“Spin” (2019), published through creative collective, “SIU Press”, is available for purchase.
“I look back at what I stepped on: a bird, half-dead. It looks bloated, but its eyes are still moving. A lump pulses near its head, as if a heart is soon to be evacuated through its beak. ”
Sighing in Unison presents :
Golden Mean
A collection of poetry selected from a dozen authors, including B. John Gully
