Jim Stitzel
Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of WordsExcerpts from Life
Seven Hours In An Emergency Room
I stand in the waiting are of a local emergency room, stand because I cannot bear to sit, cannot bear to hold still. I’m on day four of Panic Attack #ItDoesn’tEvenMatter, and I can barely hold myself together. I’m at the emergency room because I need relief, because it’s a month out before I’ll get to see my new psychiatrist, because I can’t afford to wait that long, because the anxiety is cutting into my ability to function and I NEED HELP RIGHT NOW!!!
Beasts versus Monsters
Sometimes the beasts of my heart are unable to overcome the monsters of my mind.
On Change, Changes, and Changing
I’ve begun to pack up my apartment. I have a pile of broken down boxes, a couple of rolls of packaging tape, and rooms full of odds and ends I’ve picked up over the last year-and-a-half that need to be packed away. Because, as with so many things in life, it’s time for another change.
Fiction
Bees
It is an active hive. Thousands of bees cluster around the thing, flying in and out, performing any number of tasks for the betterment of the hive as a whole. They build onto the hive. They forage for food. They nourish and care for the queen. But most of all, they...
The Shop
An hourglass, where the bottom is a clear crystal chamber and the top is a human skull. Sand passes through the jaw to the chamber below, where a live scorpion rearranges the sand into geometric patterns. A stuffed cat, taxidermized in such a way that all its fur is...
Dragoling
“Hey, Matt, what’s that on your shoulder? “Uh, it’s a dragoling.” “A what??” “A dragoling. It’s basically a dragon, but smaller. He’s already grown to full size.” “Weird. Where’d you get it?” “Egg.” “Of course. And where’d you get the egg?” “Gypsy.” “You’re a wealth...