Brad Zellar

Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it. –Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood ‘You must journey down another road,’ he answered, when he saw me lost in tears, ‘if ever you hope to leave … Read more

The summer is fading. The moon is easing down to sleep in the trees, even as the stars step back into the dark country of heaven. They look like a small cluster of island villages in the North Sea, seen from an airplane at night. A fox, interloper here in the middle of a city … Read more

I’ve had one too many fucking nickels pulled out of my ear, the younger of the two men said. He was sitting on the floor, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, pajama bottoms, and badly worn bedroom slippers. He had declined the offer of a seat on the sofa, choosing instead to slump down against the wall … Read more

The way you throw your head back and show your broken teeth to the stars. How you laugh laugh laugh, nodding, your eyes pinned back to your perfect ears. I love that. The places you take me and the way you allow yourself to be taken, wherever you might be, so suddenly by sleep– I … Read more

Early Berleson had long since grown accustomed to the static routine of his middle years. He would sleepwalk through the day at work, make his way home in a sort of empirical blackout, and then, eventually, the night would just fall out from under him and leave him floating in murky space, listening to the … Read more

Only once it happened, only the one time, that once upon a time, the only memory I have left that inspires anything for the man but disgust. And even so, it wasn’t love I was feeling that day, but a sort of plain pity and cruel fascination, but, Jesus, it was a great moment, almost … Read more

Those days were an iron wagon loaded with rocks that we dragged through muddy fields with our teeth. You were a magnificent burning boat that would not sink. We were as prepared as anyone could be who was facing a long night like that. We had, at any rate, been preparing for it for decades. … Read more

–Image copyright Rocky Schenck Right now, right this moment, you’d like nothing better than to sit staring at the splendid moon floating in a shallow cloud-saucer of skim milk right outside your window. There’s a nice breeze, and surely memories are moving on it. Pleasant memories, I’ve no doubt, if you could manage to sit … Read more

The night doesn’t move at all. It doesn’t budge. It’s like it drops from out of nowhere, and all of a sudden I’m splayed in total darkness on the floor thinking about goats. And I know that it’s going to just squat there over me, to the point where I can’t move and can barely … Read more