Jim Stitzel
Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of WordsExcerpts from Life
My Ducks
My ducks are not in a row.They are scattered,And one is drunk off its ass.The disarray is not of my choosing.It imposed itself on my rowless ducks.But I have made no effortTo make sense of the chaos.The lie where they have fallen,And I am content to leave them...
The Return of Back Pain
It’s been a number of years now since I’ve dealt with any kind of significant back pain. Which is almost ironic considering that 1) I still have degenerative disc disease, and 2) I’m still carrying around more weight than I ought to be. But I’m not stupid about how I...
A Visitation
I am lying in my bed, on my back looking up at the ceiling. The covers are pulled up to my chest, and I am struggling in vain to find my way to sleep. The crack on the ceiling is currently holding my attention, and I am wondering how it got there. But as I watch that...
Fiction
Elder
Isme Blackwell played her flashlight off the walls of the warehouse. It was empty except for the racks, which stood like steel skeletons shadowed in the darkness. The place was perfectly silent, making her sneakered footfalls uncomfortably loud to her ears. The air...
Come This Far
The engines were down. Again. The Maritime Law had been adrift in space for several hours now, the latest in a series of malfunctions to the ship. Aston was at his wit’s end trying to solve the problem. “Malcolm, what’s our current position?” he called out. The...
The Key
The key didn't work. Which was confusing because he'd made the thing himself, and it had worked the first few times he'd used it. The keyhole in the back of her head hadn't changed. He was sure of that. But then, he was sure the key would still work, too, and it now...