The Shine Journal
Exceptional Flash, Poetry, Art and Photography!
Three From Bill Alton
After You Leave
I unpack alone and light a cigarette,
the smoke rises to the ceiling
looking for something to do.
I can’t say your name anymore.
It tastes of pitch, sticking my tongue
to teeth.
People kick the day around
out in the street, grasping
at sunlight with folding hands.
A couple lean into each other
on the corner. They’re disappearing.
I remember how that happens.
I remember the way arms and legs
blend. I remember the way they pull
apart, tendrils clinging, tearing
little pieces out.
The Physical Coward
When he says yes, he means, I don’t know,
or maybe, Help me please.
He is a physical coward.
He worries there might be fists
or shouting. So he nods and smiles
and agrees to selling
what he doesn’t have.
Because He Promised
An old man kneels in the pew and says his wife’s name over and over. He is here every day. He hasn’t missed Mass since the day she died. She made him promise. Promises are precious as teeth to him. He keeps them with his knees. He works and goes to Mass and he says her name because he’s forgotten her face except for the photos he’s been taking down now, one by one.
Motivation: After You Leave was inspired my my wife and I nearly separating. I imagined her helping me move out because that's the kind of person she is and what it would be like to have her walk out of my life for good.
The Physical Coward is purely imaginary. I made up someone who is afraid to speak their mind and ended it by combining him with a telemarketer.
Because He Promised comes from a friend of my who promised his dying wife he would continue going to church after she died. My friend took the promise seriously and has since attended Mass daily. The picture turning comes from a quote that the majority of widowers remarry within a year of their wife's death. I couldn't imagine keeping you dead wife's image all over your place if you're courting someone new.
Bio: Bill Alton started writing in the Eighties while incarcerated in a psychiatric prison and has found he can’t stop. Since then his work has appeared in Gloom Cupboard, Amarillo Bay and Breadcrumb Scabs among others. He earned both his BA and MFA from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon where he continues to live with his wife and sons.
Click the pics to meet the members!
Email TSJ: Editor: Pamela Tyree Griffin
Send to a friend
