You Shouldn't Be Reading This

Hello to Shawn, my wonderful and gorgeous Bamms! And apologies for stealing the title of his brilliant story, but it's only for a day and I promise to give it back!

The strangest things started to happen, the fruit started to glow. I’m not kidding, the entire produce section pulsated. My old life had left, a bored guest at a dinner party that got the coats and cruised. The fruit, that was something else. It wasn’t anything I wanted to eat anyway. Like everybody else, I wanted things to change. When they did, I couldn’t understand it, but I had to anyway. I tried to tell myself it wasn’t that terrible. You deal with things the way you always have and that turns out to be, well, inadequate, like swimming in the current of an already swollen river.

Sometimes when I wake up, my eyes are cut out of my head and things appear behind them that no one could imagine. What could I tell you that I wouldn't want you to know? I don't know any sad stories, just moments and that will have to do. Once I sat in a bar and saw a man sitting alone with a blinking Santa hat, talking to himself. I tried to hear what he was saying, but I couldn't. Some things are not meant to be. And well, if this story has a happy ending, I'll be as surprised as you are.

Michelle's Spell of the Day

"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells, the less you know." Diane Arbus

Wake-Up Call

One part peppar vodka
One part vodka
a hint of vermouth

This is served like a traditional martini garnished with an olive.

Benedictions and Maledictions

First published in bordersenses:

A Wife That Doesn’t Work

Here we are at the end of it -- this
is the part that often doesn’t go
well -- you know, the moment I
threaten to cut off your dick or kill
myself. So you have to be careful.
The tone is tricky. Too much sadness
and I’ll plead that we should be
together, that I could be your wife
that doesn’t work, the one who gave
up everything for you as well as she
can. Too little pain and I’ll feel
used, betrayed, and I could make my
presence known, the lump in her breast
that turns out to be malignant. You
and I have created kingdoms out
of the tiniest slivers of your life, and I
remember each generic hotel room, but
mostly I feel closest to you when you
are not with me. In those moments you
are the faintest hint of the moon instead
of a man in the shower, trying to erase me.
Marry me so I will not love you anymore.