by Michael C. Keith You can’t stop being afraid just by pretending everything that scares you isn’t there. – Michael Marshall During the summer of my 11th year,…
Author Archive
Thumbing Georgia
by Michael C. Keith If you were color blind, you’d be a better person. Robert Smith It seemed to me that we’d been standing on the blazing stretch of Route 1 south of Savannah half of my 12 years on the planet. “My legs are getting rubbery from being here…
Broken Sleep
by Michael C. Keith For some offenses, there is only retribution. – Dennis R. Miller Quinn Myer woke up in the middle of the night to relieve himself, but…
What Papa Want
by Michael C. Keith There is something about poverty that smells like death. Dead dreams dropping off the heart like leaves in the dry season and rotting around the feet. …
The Story You Are About To…
By Michael C. Keith Television can have dire effects on the young mind. – George Gerbner In 1954, me and my best friend, Carlos Munoz, would go down to Bailey’s Appliance Store on Foster Street and stand in front of its display window and watch television. My dad said they…
Antlers
by Michael C. Keith Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts. – D.H. Lawrence The white tail buck moves its snout a millimeter beyond the oily grass line and is assailed by a torrent of unfamiliar scents. “My mother will love those cloth napkins. She’d have everything…
Above Love
by Michael C. Keith Every bad precedent originated as a justifiable measure. – Gaius Sallustius Crispus It was out on deserted Route 310, nine miles north of Roseau, Minnesota, that Connor Barnes encountered something unlike anything he’d ever seen. It hovered in the air just a few yards in…
Sad Scene From an Old Movie
by Michael C. Keith INT. HOSPITAL ROOM – DAY GIRL about 10 years old is in bed. She is covered in a gray blanket that reaches just above her mouth. The room is empty and its furnishings are stark. Décor suggests pre-WWII era. A sole window looks out onto the…
When She Was Gone
by Michael C. Keith What is the worst of woes that wait an age? What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow? To view each loved one blotted from life’s page, And be alone on Earth, as…
Private Activities
by Michael C. Keith Things have come to a pretty pass when [man] is allowed to invade the sphere of private life. –– Lord Melbourne “Somebody hid a micro camera in the President’s bedroom!” whispered White House staffer Scott Piffin to his girlfriend. “You’re kidding!…