The World is Bigger than an Ell Read online

railing, cars humming along the pavement behind me, my hands clasped together. “Hypodermis” and “metacarpals” rub and pop against “hamates” and “scaphoids.” Below me rests the bayou. “Water” and “hydrogen” and “oxygen” and “proton” and “down quark” and more run past the “fisherman’s launch ramp” from the “bayou” into “Spring Lake.”

  Now "the snow" stops as I stand here, and I look up. “Clouds” race across the sky I know is there but cannot read. The world is words inscribed as the shapes of things, even across the feel of things, and “the wind” blows sounds shaped by the words that carry them. Words press on words, forcing meaning across the surface of mysteries, and I shift down, layer after layer down, each surface peeling back, fluttering away, mystery distilling mystery, words without worlds.

  ###

  Because Love Resists Narrative

  Here we go, we’re jumping up and down

  “How will I cut this steak?”

  Eating sandwiches, clanging cutlery, and falling in love

  And he jumps up from the table, spilling the forks,

  Spoons, and she reaches forward to take

  Here we go, we’re jumping up and down

  The bottle that’s not empty, the jumping corks

  Scatter, and he wants to make

  Eating sandwiches, clanging cutlery, and falling in love

  A call to New York’s

  Finest because he sees her stealing his heart. “Flakes

  Here we go, we’re jumping up and down,”

  She thinks, “or dorks.”

  Then smiles, and, “you. Go jump in a lake.”

  Eating sandwiches, clanging cutlery, and falling in love

  And he jumps, smiles, flaps like a mustering of storks

  And she grabs the knife, and begins to quake

  Here we go, jumping up and down

  Eating sandwiches, clanging cutlery, and falling in love

  ###

  Meet Ashley's Neighbor

  "Gawdammit, Ashley, if you don't keep your fekkin ferret outta my trailer, I sweartagawd I'm gonna send it back in a casserole. I can do it, I'm a culinary student. I got the knives. I know how to skin things."

  ###

  Thank you for reading my story, “The World is Bigger than an Ell,” the villanelle “Because Love Resists Narrative,” and the short-short “Meet Ashley’s Neighbor,” part of a serial character sketch. If you enjoyed them, please consider taking a moment to leave me a review at your favorite retailer?

  Thank you very much!

  Phil Strobe

  About Phil Strobe

  Phil Strobe is a West Michigan author whose other career paths have given him as much pleasure, more money, and less pain than writing. For these reasons, he still pursues them. He occasionally catches them. Phil is available to talk to your small or large group on things like books, land use planning, and bad decisions. Dinosaurs love him. Phil Strobe is a pen name, because pen names are fun!

  Connect with Phil

  Author’s Blog: https:// philstrobe.blogspot.com/

  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/philstrobe

  G+: https://plus.google.com/113385601299426933980/about

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