Jim Stitzel
Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of WordsExcerpts from Life
Sleep, and the Struggle Thereof
I slept five hours last night. I was expecting seven, but of course my anxiety had other ideas. Do you know what it’s like to wake up in the wee hours of the morning, not yet fully awake but just semi-comatose enough to know that something isn’t right? You hear...
So Much Colorful Trash
I feel like so much colorful trash today. (Yes, there is such a thing as colorful trash. It’s the same as regular trash, just, y’know, brighter. Don’t ask me how it works. I don’t make the rules.) Between sleeping much less than my usual number of hours the last month...
The Types of Dreams I’ve Had the Past Few Years
(Content warning: discussion of death and dreams of bullying and violent behavior) I don’t understand my sleeping mind. I can’t remember the last time I had a true nightmare. But for a number of years now, the kinds of dreams I have feature situations and scenarios...
Fiction
Stormy Weather
The wind howls outside my bedroom window. A tree branch, swaying in the wind, raps against the glass, tck tcking in an irregular rhythm. There are voices in that tempest, voices that I can just barely make out. They speak to me of times long past, of errors made and...
Critter
I have a sinking sensation in the pit of my stomach. That's where it lives. The critter, if you can call it that. It burrowed into my torso, and it took up residence there. All I can see of it is its mouth, sticking out of my abdomen, and it is insatiably hungry. I...
Crow
The crow talks to me. It sits on the road sign, with its black eyes, its black beak, and its black feathers, and it speaks to me. I don’t understand the words — they’re in bird, of course. But the words come, all the same. They take up space inside my mind,...