jonathan powers

We hope people on the street see that we are endorsed by one of the Raiderettes. We put her signed photo in our window. It adds a touch of class to our shoe resouling business. The picture of Marie Osmond wasn't recognizeable, it got sunbleached all green a few years back.

To kind of pick up the atmosphere when folks aren't coming in I put on this audio CD I recorded a while back. It's a loop of our espresso machine steaming milk. I think I recorded a mocha, a double capuccino, a late and a dobio espresso. I remixed it so it sounds like a bunch more drinks are being made. We have an outdoor speaker in one of the windows facing the street. You'd be surprised how many more folks on the sidewalk come in. I sold a copy to this guy who runs "Deaf Dog Coffee" he burnt one for one of his regulars cause the guy was going overseas and wanted to be reminded of home.

creative writing students

I don't find anything meaningful in it.
It's forced and over writen.
You don't have any alusions to classical works of literature.
Why should I be interested in it?
No character development.
There is no action, no movement.
I'm not implying you have no plot, I'm telling you, you have no plot.
Why does your narrator use four different tenses?
tenderlessly? How many of your other words end in 'ly'?
Suspended disbelief only carries me halfway into your third paragraph.

Mobile

A work of art meant to be as fleeting as time itself
maybe that's why it was stolen.

The Vikings refused to trade away weapons. When the Skraelings began to grumble about this he ordered one of the women to bring a pitcher of milk. One glance washed away hunger for swords.

Window seat

Just as the plane took off and
whenever turbulance shook the seats
she grabbed my arm
"I'm sorry, I just hate flying... "

three hours of conversation later
when she figured out I wasn't interested in her
she flipped through her wallet until she came across a photo
"oh and this is my husband, he's sort of a nice guy."

stuart's elementary school thesis on obessity

I think that fat people
are fat
because they have all these big lumpy fat globs
all in their guts.

Trying too hard as a small town movie critic

"...'Good Will Hunting' meets 'The Seventh Seal'
directed by Robert Altman, then perhaps..."

cash cow

she was
in the weekly newspaper's society section,
the page otherwise known as
"photos of the advertisers' wives"

Black Trenchcoats

all-season cliche clothing for
the clique trying
unsuccessfully
to be counter-culture.

obit writer

at 70 he hunched over a computer keyboard
 for the first time
nose high
squinting through the bottom of his bifoculs
at text on his monitor
and remembered his first day working
when he melted lead
for typesetting.

Retort to a Rude Customer

"ma'am, keep fighting, you'll win, honest."
"Excuse me?"
"Aging. I think you can beat it. If you raise your turtleneck an inch higher on your wrinkled neck
you might be able to shave another 10 years off."

Neighborhood watch

argument under a stop sign
at the corner
on the sidewalk
rotated around it for
over an hour
until the gestures almost
became punches
but didn't
because a patrol car
passed.

Turntablist

man
I'm tellin you
I had this scratch going
it was hella tight, yo
I thought that shit was communicating with aliens, yo