paul-rousseauWhisper

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HideawayLars lifts opens the toilet seat. The hinge squawks and he mimics the sound with his mouth. A dumb smile folds out on his face like someone unrolling a beach towel. He sits without dropping his pants or underwear. The cops are just about to leave through the screen door. Maggie offers a departing sacrament of right out of the oven of crispy flakey Pillsbury biscuits. They wave their hands parallel to the ground refusing. Maggie pulled the biscuits out too early. The bottoms are tan and dimensional but the tops are sloppy. They look like they have a glaze but they don’t have a glaze. They are pasty but still hot to the touch. The pan is hot. Maggie is wearing maroon oven mitts. One of the cops gets his foot snagged on the throw rug. They walk with their heads down but don’t notice the curled edges of the throw rug. They notice a black pug named Roger instead and nearly avoid fumbling over him. The cops scatter outside quickly like ducklings crossing the street. Lars’ dumb smile lingers and he laughs with a shushing lisp. He reaches between his legs into the toilet bowl. His hand disturbs the water. His nose is bleeding. Maggie closes the doorwall after the cops leave. The cops left the screen open. Maggie reopens the doorwall, closes the screen, shakes her head, and then closes the doorwall again. The kitchen is humming with improper wires. The light is electric pastel blue. The linoleum is too ***** to sleep on. Maggie’s ******* can be seen through her shirt. Lars wipes his nose with his arm and shoulder. He is hunched digging into the toilet bowl. He pulls out a baggie with a twist tie on top. The baggie looks reused. Maggie enters under the frame of the door and her lips roll out like a beach towel. The ******* in the baggie is very very dry.

1

Sep 16, 2016

Cruel and UnusualK.p’s dad was a Science Fiction author, / While his son and I learned at school. / The teacher talked about planes, bombs, and towers-

24

Jul 11, 2016

Twin PlanetsLarry, the man who terraformed Mars, has a scar over his left eye. / Maggie, his younger sister, could not make up her mind. / Her brother was a Star Man. She was left behind.

26

Feb 21, 2016

Brian's 6th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest '09We've taken you from your home. Lush in line, your twins and elders, taken. / You lost connection to the Nexus, put on display with porous candied paper messengers and the consumers of blood, perched from the ceiling by invisible lineage. / We have taken you. We're sorry. We lament. We trade small goods to take you, but its easy.

8

Oct 1, 2015

An Outtake from the Journal of Striker Gutwrench(The page is torn on the left alignment) / ...And then they would place their pistols beneath their chins and pull the trigger. I would see it as some cylindrical spatter of blood escaping from the tops of their heads, like over exaggerated gore from the adult movies. So what would happen next for them exactly? Blackness? No. That is still something. Perhaps just empty. No. Can't be. *Empty* has potential to be filled, rendering it not quite *nothing*. I suppose it would be like before you were born. Do you remember it?

2

Jun 27, 2015

The Letter "R"There is red in the forefront of my family crest, I was told / that meant outsiders were not taken lightly. We would pour tar / over castle walls and then many years later down our lungs.

12

Apr 16, 2015

Destiny PantoumThere is more free space than matter / My zenith is far from touching land / A wing tipped by the ring of Saturn

12

Apr 16, 2015

The Contents of My WastebasketBaggie, tin foil, pizza box that entered much too soon before I had the chance to read the baking instructions. / Tissues, red bull cans, graded busy work that earned it's keep after a professor marked it with a big red "X." / Mummified tea bags drained of every last living drop, miniature candy bar wrappers, a dumb drawing of a cow dressed as Spider-man.

5

Mar 12, 2015

AnnaHell holds a place / Where I pace in a space / And through glass, I look at you.

52

Nov 10, 2014

Off Spring On WinterThe bit crusher and asteroid farmer- married at the age of twenty four. / It's a bit tougher as her dad would alarm her- / To be carried in a cockpit evermore.

6

Jul 14, 2014

Hello PoetryVoting