guilty and pardoned

now. a short story.


so he had a great idea. o how she loved him.

there is a man who sees a woman drop her scarf and says nothing.

there is a small corner of the world where people walk around with eyes crossed and teeth sharp like upside down church steeples.

a man ties a noose with a cord ripped from his stereo. it doesnt have one of those round and round knots like the ones in the movies. it is a simple slipknot. the only one he knows. he will hang like a duck in a chinese restaurant from a pipe in a spotless apartment.

a woman has an orgasm for the first time. she is twenty five years old.

a toe is stubbed and a god is cursed.

a man gets a promotion and a woman thinks its because he is a man.

a man looks around and then throws a piece of garbage in the street.

a wife learns to tell the truth. a couple is divorced. kids are ruined.

a man opens a beer and thanks god.

a kid cries in a doctors office and the doctor tells the nurse to make the kid be quiet. she gives him a sucker. the kid will remember her face and her breast and the uniform when he is older.

there is the sky. there are clouds in some spots and there are no clouds in some spots. it is raining. we are already dead. both heaven and hell can be found on earth. oh well. then he sighs. oh and then she screams. somebody remembers their childhood and dials a drug dealer. the two of them are kind of friends but only talk about a few different subjects. movies. getting high. how fucked up everything is.

a mother calls her family to dinner and none of them want to come out of their rooms.

a white person is killed in africa and it makes the front page of the newspaper.

for the first time in her life a woman thinks about her mother dying and is upset about all of the times they have fought. they continue to fight almost every time they see eachother.

a soldier masturbates.

a student decides to pose nude for a friend who is a photographer. they end up having sex. they never talk again.

a teacher knows she isnt doing what she set out to do.

a man loses his job and gets drunk.

a guy tells his friends about a girl he fucked and they all laugh. he feels bad about it when his friends are no longer around.

a man thinks he is a writer. a man thinks he is a failure. a man wants more. a man dies unhappy.

she eats peanut butter by the spoonful. she gets held in the evenings.

there is a pigeon. shitting. on a window. it wont be cleaned until the next rainfall. bright green liquid gathers in the gutter. people walk by and wonder what it is. they figure its from a car but theyre not sure from which part.

a classroom of children recites the pledge of allegiance and the teacher notices how beautifully the sunlight covers the desks and walls. the teacher has many regrets. the children wont remember this day.

you wish you could take apart an engine and put it back together. you worry about being late. you hurry up.

a beer bottle is tossed through the air. it smashes on the pavement. a father hears it shatter and wonders if he can protect his children. in ten years his son will be drunk and smash a beer bottle on the street outside of someones apartment. the people in that apartment will not have kids yet.

a teenager learns about abusive relationships in health class and realizes that by definition he is in one.

a baby is covered in blood and crying. the parents smile. out of breath. it is their first child. they are unprepared but feel like they will learn as they go. things turn out okay.