Joe Swanson

“Cooking Under Pressure” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #78

“What you doin?” “What does it look like I’m doin?” “Don’t rightly know, or I wouldn’t be askin.” “Makes some kind of sense. You really wantin to know?” “Like I said, I wouldn’t be askin if I…” “Ok, OK, I’ll tell ya if’n you don’t know.” “Well, alright then!” And that’s the way it seems to go. Been goin on like this for generations, and each one passes and leaves something behind for us to be wondered about. Great Granddad, picture of him and the long saw, on the shop wall. Him and his buddy, Rooty Two Toes, cutting down ...

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“Lint” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #78

It is an innocuous…don’t really know what to call it. It reminds me of having your soul cleaned by a professional. Your sins are pulled from you by the mere mention of the word salvation. Father Maytag and Mother Westinghouse, delve into the spirit of who you are, and spin the inevitable shedding of life’s lessons into the collection basket for easy disposal. But that is not the reason I chose lint as something to collect. My first inclination was to use it to stuff pillows with, like the new version of My Pillow, which i...

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“Summertime, and the Living Is Easy” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #77

“You should buy it.” “I don’t know. $15.00 dollars, seems like a lot.” “What, you taking it with you? Live a little.” I know when I should listen and when it’s best to pretend. Dennis always has the answers, most times, to the wrong questions. He means well, at least I hope he does, for his sake. Reputation around here means everything. Sometimes I have to wonder though, why our experiences, although similar, seem to leave us different messages. It was like that, the day at the beach. I guess that is why I agree...

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“Stuck in the Middle With You” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #77

“Do you remember when we used to do this all the time?” “Yeh, don’t remember why we stopped.” “We got old. We started to act the way we believed we were supposed to. Our dreams became a reality, and I think we just got scared.” She’s probably right. We used to do a lot of things we don’t do anymore. I don’t know if its that we got old, or that we got old, because we stopped doing things we used to do.  We have a tendency I think to believe our own stories, our own lies, our own expectations, and if we do this or that...

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“Stuck in the Middle” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #77

I can’t get out. I debated coming to the cabin, the weather forecast looked compromising, but then, it was a weather forecast. It was snowing lightly when I left. When I got to Atlas, the last harbinger of civilization near the cabin, the snow turned to rain. The temperatures have been erratic, and the rain is freezing as it hits the road.  I slid several times, losing temporary control, and then I slipped off the road and into the ditch. There is no escaping. I am trapped in the snow. I decide, being close...

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“The Difference a Life Makes” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #77

    Raining, not unusual here in this time, not the time I’m used to, in my backlogged memories of January.      Being from a place where you live unwound, spinning, bumping into seasons, their offerings hard to forget. Frozen fingers, icicled eyelids, the crack of the cold smashing into the trees, the shrieking as their blood expands, exploding gun shots in the dark of thirty below.     Why remain within the grasp of what could kill you; did murder some, but always forga...

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“Halls End” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #77

Is it supposed to stop? I should have left several hours ago, when I wanted to. But as always, I let the duty, or perhaps my presumption of duty, cause me to disregard by instincts. I make the usual assumption that if the weather was that bad, they’d let us know. Tell us, me, to go home. Looking out the window, I can see the snow piling up on the roof of the car, swirling around the parking lot, now a white desert. I’m used to being alone here, I’m a night watchman, security guard they call us, but I’ve yet to figure...

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“Room Temperature” by Joe Swanson

“Lies are best told at room temperature.” “Who said that?” “Does it matter?” I saw the film, Liar Liar.  Jim Carey played a character who could not tell a lie. The film develops along predictable lines of exploration, and although predictable, it was informative, and insightful. Not being able to tell a lie of course is different than not wanting to tell a lie. There is no lie detector stretched across our spectrum of daily interactions that rings when we cross the imaginary line of truthfulness, that indicates a word or actio...

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“Is Delusion the Solution?” by Joe Swanson

“We’ve just had an assault on our capitol building, but more importantly some say, on our democracy. I’ve heard many people speaking of, what it was, how it came to be, and what was intended by those who visited the capitol. What do you think about that?” “You know I try not to think…about things like that. I understand the purpose, and realize as Che Guevara said, “A revolution without guns, is no revelation at all,” in so many words of course. I do not mean to speak for him or rationalize his ambulatory messaging, as a ...

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“The Next Time” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #76

“The next time she says that, I’m going to…” How many times have I said that? And then what? Usually nothing. I’m a coward, not because I want to be, but because I have been taught to be. Not just by my parents, but teachers, telephone solicitors, nearly anyone in authority. I am afraid of being embarrassed, humiliated, made to feel as though being ineffectual, is what I should emulate. I was encouraged to be no more, no less, than that opaque color on the wall that refuses to make people wither, blush, or prete...

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“You Don't Say” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #76

“What I am attempting to tell you, is that when it comes to right and wrong, you are wrong. You can be both right, and wrong. That is the measure of any word, its meaning. And who gives it meaning?” “Oh contraire, my friend. Right and wrong, although opposites, are the same in one respect. One can’t exist without the other. It is the same principle as good and evil. The words and therefore the concept only have meaning if they exist in conjunction with one another.” “I see your point, but that does not eras...

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“Depictionary” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #76

“They call that, unprecedented?”     “I don’t know what you’d call it. I’m not sure what the word even means anymore. It’s one of those words that will go down in infamy. You know there is a problem with using a word too many times for too many different reasons. It begins to resemble those comedians who do nothing but swear. After a while it gets to be less effective. Your ears rebel against the lack of imagination. Let’s find another word. What do you say?” “I agree it has been us...

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“Today's Tomorrow” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #75

When I think back on my day, I can’t believe it actually is over. Much like the week, month, year, ten, twenty years gone. I spent most of that time planning I assume for something. I don’t even remember what it was anymore, but I must have believed it was important at the time. It is just that life goes by so fast, I don’t remember most of it happening. Tomorrow is a new year. I normally don’t pay much attention to all the celebratory nonsense that surrounds it. To me it was just another day, until it wasn’t. I...

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“Forgetting Something?” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #75

“You don’t remember anything?” “Nope, not a thing.” “Doesn’t that bother you? I know it would bother me.” I don’t really know when it began, because it isn’t like you get hit in the head, end up in the hospital and don’t know who you are or where you are. It is slower than that. It’s more like you can’t find your glasses. You know how someone always points to your head cause that’s where they are supposed to be. But you don’t wear glasses and you can’t find them cause you don’t remember you don’t wear glasses. It’s n...

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“Other's: Lives” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #75

“I was driving on the 5, when this truck up ahead of me slams on his brakes. That’s why I don’t like driving behind anything I can’t see around or over. Like to know what’s up ahead, just in case. Well this was one of those just in case times. A metal pole came flying from nowhere and went through the windshield just inches from me. I could have been dead, but I’m here talking to you.  I want to know how come I’m still here, and how you are going to get me through it.” “It’s not really what I do.” “They told me ...

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