across the street

My story “The Beautiful Horizon” in The Purpose of Reality: Solar has been shortlisted for the 2022 Aurealis Awards in the Fantasy Short Story Category. Info about The Purpose of Reality collections below.

They’ve built a block of apartments
across the street, all the way along.

My neighbors over there had to vacate,
but I heard a little wailing
beneath the motors’ roar
when the night machines
ground their houses to gravel.

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the book

An inconspicuous library
in a forgotten country town.

The librarian won’t let you borrow it,
but you may read it in the library,
hold it in your calloused hands,
even riffle its soft pages
gently with your fingertips,
like so many have before you.

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where is the sun?

A car the color of the sunset disappears
around a corner, the sky recalls a long-ago
metropolis, and films of rain are shining
on the concrete and the bitumen,
the bushes and the trees.

I think about what I’ve done and
what I will, and wonder where’s the sun?
Am I any closer to it?

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The Purpose of Reality K

reasonable mistakes

The Purpose of Reality illustrated short story and poetry collections from Meerkat Press, with pretty fair reviews from Publishers Weekly and the like, now available on Amazon and at other outlets, click for details including reviews.

“You know Rodney, you’re just
a hanger-on, a waste of
space, time, and air.”

She never got my name right,
but I knew where she was
coming from. I was her ghost
companion, a Dapto tourist
information brochure
for an interstellar traveler—
unnecessary and pointless
in every way.

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The Purpose of Reality L

beyond the glass

The Purpose of Reality illustrated short story and poetry volumes from Meerkat Press, with fair reviews from Publishers Weekly and the like, now available on Amazon and at other outlets, click for details including reviews.

Beyond the glass, the water birds
are gliding on the rails of rain,
and, for a moment,
their distant pattering melody
recalls a semblance
of another chance
at hopefulness—even with
the knowing that it’s far too late
for all of that.

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The Purpose of Reality Solar & Lunar

the realtor’s dream

The Purpose of Reality, illustrated short stories and poetry from Meerkat Press. They’ve had some pretty fair reviews from Publishers Weekly and the like. Now available to order on Amazon, and at other outlets. Purchase, review, and other info here.

Location, location, location,
the realtor’s dream of sifting
through the time stream’s rows
of single bed room nights
in the company of shades and shadows,
and never lost in someone else’s thoughts.

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The Purpose of Reality T

the purpose of reality

Unlike the solitary dreams of sleep, reality is common ground, a place where we share with one another, and intertwine the other kind of dreams: our plans, hopes, and visions for the future. That is the purpose of reality.

My Purpose of Reality books from Meerkat Press, illustrated poetry and short stories, are now available, with pretty fair reviews from Publishers Weekly and the like. Reviews, purchase, and other info here.

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the quiet hours

The rain was running late, still pattering
on the muddy puddles of the city sky,
and the street was smeared with cloud
star-ridden with mercury lamps—
a world as dreary as long-lost
infatuation, as a friend’s anger,
as empty jealousy.

Like a moth attracted
to the flickers of fluorescent lights,
I chose a frayed café where
my dairy-whitened instant coffee
with artificial sweetener
—all its chemical delights—
put me in the writing mood.

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