Postcard Shorts (no longer with us) published microfiction that fit on a postcard. They were kind enough to select Leper.
How To Blink
In June 2017, The Citron Review published my account of a bar fight, from the perspective of someone waiting for the first punch to be thrown. Reprinted for you now:
How To Blink
by DL Shirey
I’m nose to nose with a guy who has a neck tattoo. It wouldn’t be fair to let you imagine some seedy joint filled with bikers and angry drunks. It’s a spotless cantina in a Mexican chain restaurant and the tattoo in question is that of a cartoon duck. Even though my opponent and his posse look like they walked out of an algebra class, looks can be deceiving.
Be he mathlete or meth-head, I never start the fight. I look into my opponent’s eyes and concentrate on blinking normally. That and not being the first to talk. If Donald Duck, here, speaks before throwing-down, chances are he’s looking for an out. I am happy to de-escalate, welcome it, actually. However, I am always prepared to counter.
Blink.
In-laws
My second 50-word story was published by blink-ink. This is a subscription-based quarterly publication, and I urge you to sign up and support it. Twelve bucks a year for a quartet of nifty fifties. What, that’s like three lattes?
Time to cut down on caffeine and start the day with more microfiction.
Pyrophilia
Who says a pyromaniac can’t be a poet? First published in May 2017 by Liquid Imagination. Unfortunately the publication is no longer available.
Pyrophilia
by DL Shirey
The beauty of an unstruck wooden match is in the potential. It is uncomplicated. Scratch one on any surface to achieve resolute combustion. Simple phosphorus atop sulphur, like a beautiful redhead wearing a pale beret. She will dance, unbridled, in her full yellow skirt, twirling with wide folds of fire; an impetuous flare that calms, without fail, to flame.
tweetpulp
tweetpulp, a new Twitterzine, published my short, short, short pulp fiction tale.
DL Shirey 