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Ghost Parachute

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Stress Cardiomyopathy

October 1, 2017 By Sheldon Lee Compton

Stress Cardiomyopathy

Twenty Years and Again

A roach across the floor with light after its body, illuminating cornea-thin wings. There were roaches all those years before, but I was younger then, and my mother not nearly so sick.

 

 

The Guestroom

This is your bedroom, baby. I love it, I love it, she said. She ran to the porcelain cat curled on the nightstand. Pink! I love it. I just love it. I had told her I hoped she’d liked. She liked it, I was sure, for me. A soul so old for a girl missing only three teeth from new gums.

 

 

A Picture for Marking His Place

Great Biographies. Stacks of these, a series, in the back bedroom where the old man lived half a lifetime. The books I shuffle like old cards. Thumb-hammering through one, there’s my picture marking page sixteen, wincing into the sunlight, standing, as always, in exactly the wrong spot.

 

 

Absent

I put the necklace on the sink and rubbed the tips of my fingers across my throat and upper chest.  Forever was forever, but the silver coating was fading and the copper was showing.  My children reduced to shards of pennies, and I’d not showered in weeks.

 

 

The Mercy Prayer

Somewhere there’s a road that curves in England. I’m not sure how that helps, but to think of it.  A curvy road, flatly paved, that rolls between green grass and ends somewhere where answers spring up like well water. Think of that, and not of this.

About Sheldon Lee Compton

Sheldon Lee Compton is a short story writer, poet, and novelist from Kentucky. He is the author of The Same Terrible Storm (Foxhead Books, 2012) Where Alligators Sleep (Foxhead Books, 2014) and Brown Bottle (Bottom Dog Press, 2016). Since 2008 he has maintained the blog Bent Country (bentcountry.blogspot.com) and is a member of the Zoetrope writing group The Flash Factory.

Artist Credit:

Bill Tarpley grew up in South Florida amongst a family of artists with a wide spectrum of professions and skill sets. He’s always enjoyed creating with his hands, but it wasn’t until getting a degree in digital media, and working behind a computer for a few years, that he discovered his love of painting and found his niche in the Orlando art community.

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From The Blog

On Pink Fluff and Other Notable Traditions

December 7, 2020 By Epiphany Ferrell

I’ve spent plenty of holidays alone. One of my best holiday memories is the year I was first truly independent and on my own, riding my horse with a foot of snow already on the ground and more of it coming in giant, floury flakes, on a quiet Christmas morning. It was like being inside […]

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