Straitjackets Magazine

I checked in at the lab for blood work and was told I was number 65.

Quickly, she slipped under a heap of paper and cardboard overflowing from a pack of trashcans at the corner.

I woke up cuddled underneath a stack of blankets, gazing mindlessly into a dark room.

She showed me vases that had been made to look like the ones she had dug up from a site in Greece.

The huge homemade cinnamon rolls were drenched in warm sugar frosting, and the coffee, fresh, hot, and ten cents a cup.

Each morning I wake up on the road to Oz, A rusty tin man waiting for a can of oil

Most victims aren't stalked by their assailants.

Though aware of his dirty, disheveled appearance he vowed to make an effort by talking to the first person he'd met.

At Mike's Magic Burgers, the food and some of the people are magic.

It started innocently enough in childhood with a simple "See Spot run." What would Dick and Jane do next?

A vagrant breeze, tugging at tall grasses and dancing through the trees

Summer 2017

Whenever it grew dark in the Dangerous Forest, Mother used to say that the trees themselves were frightened.

Spring 2017

...armies of the pesky gnats would invade the villages on Lake Chapala's shores.

Her subtext clearly means, "You idiot."

Her greeting was anything but warm.

I was drawn to the voice and spotted a green-headed bird sitting on a tree-like stand, behind the cashier counter.

There are so many decisions about what to take, what is essential, and what I will not live without.

the muffling silence of snow, Dampening the earth, swallowing-up lonely bird-songs like colors into white light, Snow melting down and...