Hot soup had lifted a small membrane of skin from the roof of his mouth during dinner. His tongue probed this injury, and he studied his reflection in the mirror.

Skin between his eyebrows was taut and eyes opaque, but he experienced no pain.

He did not want to die.

Michael is a graduate of Portland’s 2011 Attic Atheneum, a one-year alternative to a MFA program. His published fiction and creative non-fiction have appeared in Bartleby Snopes, Blue Lake Review, MacGuffin, PANK, Prick of the Spindle, Prime Number, and other on-line and print journals and anthologies. His series collectively called “Mississippi Freedom Summer in Eight Vignettes” was published in the “Best of the Net 2011” by Sundress Publications.