Flares by David Erlewine

Newman, you are the reason I chew so slowly and rarely watch TV during meals. I can't watch TV without thinking of the Duke-UNLV game we were watching, nine years after it originally aired, when you thought it would be funny to stick so many riblets into your mouth. You are everything, and yet sometimes I can't picture your face. Why didn't we ever take pictures? Your pinky finger flared out when I grabbed one of your fries, straight out of a "Seinfeld" episode, and from then on you were Newman. Right now, I can't remember your actual name. I think it was Brody but you couldn't have been a Brody. Your mom still thinks I had something to do with it, like I was your secret lover and I rammed my cock down your throat and called you terrible things until you gagged and I kept going like they did in the movies even after you fell. What, she thinks I stuck riblets down your throat, cleaned your face off, and then called 911? Her staff at the post office always say my packages weigh more than they do. She probably hired that guy at the train station to follow me to my car and say if I gave him a lift he would do whatever I wanted as many times as I wanted. I punished him again and again, Newman, thinking of the flannel shirts you always wore and the way you liked me to hold you still while I popped acne on your back, the way you looked up at me when I told you to, the way you always played the roles assigned, even though they were never any good. END

Like a Diamond - Glass Ghost

David Erlewine lives and lawyers near Annapolis. He bloviates at WHIZBYFICTION. His work appears or soon will in FRIGG, Necessary Fiction, SmokeLong Quarterly and other places.

Photo by Adam Lawrence.

Glass Ghost is making eclectic bedroom pop out of Boston. "Like A Diamond" is the second single from their album Idol Omens which is due out this fall on Western Vinyl.