Torsade Literary Space 
Story: The Ad Said (part two)
The Ad Said (part three) If there was a seat on the bus, they would have grabbed it, dreamed up a dodge when it counted. The sister act had got them out of bus fares before. But so many women seeking this work filled even the […]
Oracle
Oracle Be ossuary of the boneyard Be statuary of the arcade Stealing tale-bearing, stop Freeze in relief but soft Catwalk over the under with stealthful feet An icicling drip of sewer fat Piles on the pit of the catacomb That underpinning of the street A caryatid hefts upon her head entablature […]
My Blog Week: December 29 to January 4
All the Latest from Torsade! Two episodes of Bedlam, with the elder Richard put to rest, and a new chapter that begins with a genealogy project. Three episodes of “Fellyans”, the sequel story to “Be a Helper”. […]
Story: The Ad Said (part one)
The Ad Said (part three) “Girls wanted. See? Good wages. Steady hours.” “But look here. Must pass physical exam.” “You’re crazy,” their mother said. Hester smacked Hermina’s arm. “Come on! Let’s go down to the corner.” The corner meant the drugstore, where they could take a […]
Are You Haunted (part eighteen)
Are You Haunted (part eighteen) Summers had with him only a change of clothes, skivvies and socks, a shirt and slacks tailored to a fat man, packed in a cardboard suitcase. Noting the age of the lock assemblies, he hadn’t since moving in bothered with Guy’s […]
dissolving (poem)
dissolving it was a solution, now it is not it worked, like the blades of an agitator at dethreading fabric, then towels to sop the spreading could be peeled from the waste, carrying their stopgap contamination loads and trashed And the troubles entered every household seeming dilute, kept on top of […]
Are You Haunted (part seventeen)
Are You Haunted (part seventeen) Powell tested a handle of the kitchen faucet. Then jumped, at water spitting out like a phantom cat. He let it run a few seconds, weak, rusty brown. He guessed he shouldn’t have tried the hot. The boiler wasn’t going, so […]
Are You Haunted (part sixteen)
Are You Haunted (part sixteen) “And she told you she’d given my husband a few dollars, and the car to earn them with. What’s it got to do with me, if she’ll lend him a bit when he asks?” “Miss Gilshannon, I had a conversation with […]
Story: Be a Helper (part five)
Be A Helper (part five) You may know the adage, that a thing of nature has nature’s wisdom in it; a thing of man, man’s. (Jorinda would not allow it woman’s.) Bede kept a cow, and for the milk—if his neighbor’s bull came wandering—let her calve. When […]
Are You Haunted (part fifteen)
Are You Haunted (part fifteen) “It wasn’t Doyle alone who saw her. When they started doing the special work, Drybrook retired most of the old hands. Others they moved to New London, a different mill Drybrook owned where they waterproofed cloth for tents. But some of […]