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Joe Swanson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2020

Stories (284)

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260 Followers

1 Following

284 Stories

4018 karma pts

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What?

Joe Swanson

“What do you do for a living?” The question that makes you question who you are, were, want to be? It is not that I’m embarrassed by what I do, although I am. Not so much embarrassed really, as ashamed. Not because of what I do, but because of I’ve been told I am capable of doing better. I went to one of those job fair events where businesses attempt to recruit people who are congruent with their mission. Their mission depends on what their policy concerning what performance and corporate attitude imbues. Althou...

2 likes

Dreams End

Joe Swanson

I don’t know how it happened. Providence, luck, fate, I still can’t make sense of it, and yet here I am, in charge of dreams. I had assumed no one wanted the job. Too many dreams, like wishes, that were made upon a star, and just couldn’t be granted. But who says. You know how people get when they don’t really want someone to get something because they can’t have it themselves. Selfish it seems to me. There are plenty of dreams to go around. Not that I envy anyone’s dreams, or believe I deserve something t...

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Whom?

Joe Swanson

“To whom it may concern.” I had to admit I hadn’t expected such an abrupt beginning to a typical Monday, but then things have been going downhill since the meteor predicted to hit the coast missed us entirely, and ended up hitting the former Soviet Union, nearly causing WWIII. Something about the unforeseen that because of its distractive tendency places abnormally awkward images in your mind. I once had a dream about the first chimpanzee sent into space. I remember it like it was yesterday, and yet it was over sixty years ag...

2 likes

Sounds Good

Joe Swanson

James Piquet roamed the basement passages of the building. The silence, although one reason management found it difficult to keep a maintenance professional employed, was not the only reason. Urban legend had christened the Callahan Building, “haunted.” Most dismissed the unseemly sounds as the result of antiquated pipes and echo- chambered hall ways. James Piquet was neither disturbed nor enlightened by the sounds, as he was deaf. James found being deaf a most positive altern...

3 likes

Dear Chelsea

Joe Swanson

Thought I should write and let you know why I won’t be attending our school reunion this fall. 9-11 has always been one of those days that reminds me of the time we thought jalapeno peppers were those funny looking tomatoes that are supposed to be used for sauce. I’m not sure I any longer have taste buds, but then life is rarely what we perceive it to be. I don’t know who chose that date, perhaps someone ignorant, or possibly for its convenience, but it seems somehow inappropriate to celebrate or torture oneself on that day, and I ...

3 likes

Miss Representation

Joe Swanson

“Have you ever been here before?”“No dear. I’ve always wanted to come for years, but you know how life is. You keep putting things off until…well when George passed, he wasn’t much for art or museums, he’d rather go to a ball game or car race. Me, I hated the noise and the crowds, just too many people. These places are more intimate. I enjoy the history, thinking back what it must have been like to be living in a sod hut on the prairie or in a tree, so you wouldn’t become somethings lunch. Maybe I make too big a...

1 like

Explained

Joe Swanson

Explain“Can you explain this to me?”When angry, he pretends to be someone he is not. He doesn’t know how to get angry. It isn’t his fault. Our mother was a saint, our father, wasn’t.It could have been he inherited his inability to become angry from my mother, or he realized because of my father’s reaction to about everything, he didn’t want to be like him. If I had to find a reason for his unwavering placidity, I would venture a guess that it was a combination of the two. A learning experience that alters your outloo...

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Dare to Remember

Joe Swanson

The thought of being dared, dragged me back to the purposely forgotten time of childhood. The bus rides to school, the long slow walk towards the back, following that black rubber tongue licking the orange ribbed metal floor that led towards the one known as, “Larry.”Larry was a girl who grew abnormally large for her age. Her name was actually Loraine, but no one dared call her that. She demanded to be called Larry for some unknown reason; no one dared to ask. She was the referenced, "get out of bed on the wrong side," ty...

2 likes

Lying to Yourself

Joe Swanson

for good reason.They, by they I mean everybody that has ever given me advice, told me to believe in myself. If I don’t, no one else will. They say it is the one factor I need obtain if I wish to be a success, or be content to accept inevitable failure. What a terrible scenario, and yet I know there is truth in what they say. I believe they even mean well. But then they don’t know me. It is just another one of those collective feel-good statements that gets repeated over and over until it become true.I know there are ...

3 likes

The Truth About a Lie,

Joe Swanson

The lie about truth,where does one even begin to slip beneath the secrecy that masquerades itself as truth. Lies are assumed to be overt distortions of words or actions, that like a sleight of hand, directing your attention one way, while deception is applied with the other. Most magicians are not liars. However, they are promoters of self-disillusionment. A common ailment of the day, which can’t apparently be cured, because it has its roots in truth but its visibility is replicated in plastic. Woody Guthrie once sai...

1 like

Cyanide Punch

Joe Swanson

“She is toxic. She is a piranha; show any signs of weakness and she’ll attack. Don’t think your immune from the poison, there is no bubble that exists she won’t invade and lay waste too.” “Why is she like that? I’ve known others who are particular about how things are done. Believe only they have the one way to do something, but no one as controlling as you claim she is. I guess I haven’t experienced first hand the retributive nature you describe. Do you think it could have something to do with being a woman in ...

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Nothing Is Revealed

Joe Swanson

“Would you mind stepping this way.” “Are you sure it’s safe? I remember reading this article in the paper about this guy who thought he was getting into an elevator, but the floor of the elevator was missing. Does that happen often here?” Oh God, not another one of those days. Pretending to understand, be engaged, empathetic to a cause that I know will one day end, in me looking for the elevator with no floor. Fritz has taught me one thing, don’t take anything for granted, or at face value. Things are not always what they...

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Super-Sized

Joe Swanson

I believed at first, it was luck. His prophetic insistencies were irritating. I had no way to prove or disprove his predictions, but I know, that no one can see the future. I’ve heard all about the Déjà vu types, but I can only attribute that to tricks, playing mind games with people. All magic is the same. Your vulnerabilities are exploited by your need to believe, especially when, the predictions are favorable. But this was different. Maybe because I don’t know any palm readers or clairvoyants personally. ...

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Blinded By Sight

Joe Swanson

Blinded by Sight There is something about being blind, even if for only a few days, well a week. The explosion, the flash, something, no one is entirely sure, triggered something in my mind that shut down my ability to see. It wasn’t that I was physically impacted, like being hit by something, but I remember the flash. I’d had bright lights shined in my eyes before, flashes from cameras, strobes at a concert, but nothing remotely close to the impact of the explosions flash. Some people that stopped by the hospital asked how...

1 like

King of the Road

Joe Swanson

“You see that guy over there. The one with the bowler hat, and that shirt with Buggs Bunny and Porky Pig on it. He says he a King from someplace. Wouldn’t say where. Do you think he looks like a King. He don’t look like one to me.” “You had too much to drink. Everyone should look like a King to you. You ask him his name, where he’s from, ask him anything?” “He don’t say much. I talked to him for quite a while, then I realized I was basically talking to myself. Then he says right out of the blue, “...

1 like