Eager to get some beer, we stopped at Matt’s; he never gets carded. The obligatory awkwardness, greeting his folks in their soft chairs. The thermostat’s up too high, and they smile warmly, unsuspecting.
One of us usually ends up puking.
Lulled by the murmuring TV, I imagine staying, not drinking.
Steve Saulsbury writes best when prompted. He is the author of the chapbook, “Wildlife Study” (Bottlecap Press, 2025).
He must have seen me a mile away, free falling. Now I’m on the ground, lines tangled in the oak above, money scattering like feathers. And a fractured patella.
Yellow talons, big as a fist, coming closer. Eagles are good luck, no?
No.
Stern, cocky countenance, punishing eyes.
Divine judgement.
Steve Saulsbury lives on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A writer of flash fiction, his work has appeared in many online journals and several printed collections. Most
recently, his piece, “The Field,” was included in the Halloween anthology Flash of the Dead.
The scuffle was jarring. Rick shouldn’t have offered the vet a job. How could he have known tomatoes would trigger him? The serrated knife, the guts. Afterwards, he canned the man, restoring order to his kitchen.
Rick laid the knife on the drainboard, imagining men gutting. Cutting.
Stringing sundried ears.
Steve Saulsbury resides in Maryland, writing slowly, and sometimes successfully. His story “Herding Instinct” will be included in the 2023 London Independent Story Prize anthology.
That generation had skills. Dad could whittle, ink calligraphy. My uncle sang in Oklahoma.
I had a tarnished blade, lumbering larynx.
Refrigerator humming, Mom grasped at my skittish hands.
“Come on,” she said.
“I can’t.”
Until 10th grade, dark gym, my head buzzing, when the girl said, “You can so.”
Steve Saulsbury resides on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. His flash fiction has appeared in The Yard, Press 53, Loch Raven Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, and recently, Cosmorama. Steve works for the YMCA, also volunteering with Rock Steady Boxing for Parkinson’s.