Brad Zellar

To surface each morning already grasping for every precious scrap of consciousness. To dance and blow bubbles and reach instinctively for the brightest colors in the crayon box. To creep through bushes and fling yourself at the world. To howl and holler and feel the grass between your toes. To move forward. To lunge. To … Read more

There were four of them in the car. Three of them were crammed in beside each other in the front seat, drowsy and cursing intermittently and squinting into the harsh sunrise that was splattering off a windshield already made bleary with insect grease. At some point in the night they had run themselves through a … Read more

He was a god like no other. That much was apparent almost right from the beginning. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought there was something sort of funny about the boy; and though you probably won’t find anyone to publicly acknowledge it now, many thought his problems went beyond funny. Lots of … Read more

Richard Riggins had a little red robot that made his bed each morning and put his shoes in neat rows in the bedroom closet. He also had a chimpanzee that played ping-pong with him in the basement. Richard and the monkey liked the same programs on television, and whenever Richard laughed the chimp would bounce … Read more

Everything requires careful consideration if one is to understand it. In ancient times, as I recollect, people often ate human beings, but I am rather hazy about it. I tried to look this up, but my history has no chronology, and scrawled all over each page are the words: ‘virtue’ and ‘morality.’ Since I could … Read more

I have a drain where my brain ought to be. Everything that comes into my head runs straight down into my stomach, where it gets churned into mulch. The drain is a rickety thing. When I shake my head I can hear the drain rattling around in my skull. If I sleep on my side … Read more

Them poor sick creatures going up the street at two in the morning, dancing with bells on their shoes, wailing and baring their broken teeth at the moon, just throwing them heads back and shaking them devil sticks. It’s a racket, I can’t say it isn’t, but I wouldn’t go so far as some of … Read more

For a brief time, early in my days as a desperate man, I had a job at this ubiquitous sandwich chain. It was outrageous. It was awful beyond belief. I worked for this flinching woman who sat in the back room all day “portioning,” which basically involved sorting meat. You’ve probably seen how this works: … Read more

Umarked solitude absorbing time, bloating to become an environment…. –Lisa Robertson, Occasional Work and Seven Walks from the Office of Soft Architecture The monks at Lodeve, in Gascony, sanctified a mouse who had eaten a consecrated wafer. —Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, Aphorisms In his reluctance to embrace any sort of tidy resolution he kept spiraling further … Read more