Menu

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Directory

Contests

Magazine

FAQ

Joe Swanson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2020

Stories (286)

Comments

Library

262 Followers

1 Following

286 Stories

4048 karma pts

?

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

Saddle Up

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #105

Jesse James, Cole Younger, George Armstrong Custer, had brothers, friends, cohorts to play off of. Even Pinocchio had a Jiminy Cricket, I got Bob. Bob is one of those characters, who not only believes there is nothing he can’t or won’t do. It is because he is the best at everything he does, according to The Book of Bob. Thinking, even knowing sometimes, doesn’t make a wrong a right, or stupid, smart. Bob ain’t figured that out yet. Bob is a used car salesman; he is the patented descriptive nature of a used car salesman....

7 likes

Knee-deep in Nonsense

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #105

The devil he claims is a friend of his. I know he doesn’t mean that, but then again, maybe he does. I gave up a long time ago attempting to analyze the unanalyzable. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but then you don’t know Jude. I hope!Jude is one of those people who believe in astrology, stars, moons, horoscopes, and hororscopes. Most people believe in all kinds of things, but not hororscopes. I asked Jude what that even means. I know what a horoscope is; like being mind read by the celestials, who...

16 likes

Hindsight

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #105

When I fell, I thought nothing of it. I’d fallen before. Some would say I was clumsy, some that I should know better. Being old has its advantages, being steady on ones feet is not one of them. Some nice young lady helped me up, picked the things that had fallen from my bag from the sidewalk, and placed them in my bag, and handed it to me with a smile. I thanked her for her kindness and sat on a bench by the street to gather my thoughts. We have a lot of benches here, there are a lot of us old reptiles crawling aroun...

9 likes

Three Times the Charm?

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #105

“What did you see? Be honest, don’t embellish, we are just trying to get to the truth, we don’t need a novella on this one. Short story version would be best as time is of the essence. The longer it takes to get our questions answered the more likely it will be that something is forgotten, changed, unremembered, or simply in an attempt to impress us, lie. Don’t do that.”Sargent Grimes sat across from three people who would admit to having witnessed the shooting on Mayberry Street. Mayberry Street is one of those areas whe...

8 likes

First Person Plural

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #105

I saw it happening in real time. Happening to me, right before my eyes, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was like a dream I often have, where I’m being chased by something or someone, probably myself, but can’t get away. It’s not that I get caught, but I get bored and just give up. Sit on the curb, and wait. Nothing happens, no noise, no lightning, no visions, or ascensions, nothing. This is different. It feels different, because I’m awake no doubt, or at least I think I am, but then I’ve been...

7 likes

Ying-Yang Dynasty

Joe Swanson

When two people both believe they are right, does it really matter if one of them is wrong, or does it only matter if one is necessarily wrong because it matters to the other person. It is a question we ask ourselves as a means to keep from believing if we see something, why can’t others? There is no definitive answer. We have one abiding rule however, and that is when given the opportunity to participate in this tug of war, we must win. Our assumptions are based not on a scorecard that we keep, that would be too blatantly adverse...

0 likes

The Edge of a Flat Earth

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #104

“No one states that the world is flat, unless the words are used as a euphemism to make a point.”“Oh, I don’t know. There are a lot of people who have their minds set on just being disagreeable. You know, the person who if you are in favor of something they are most assuredly against it. Some people like to exaggerate a cause or an idealism, to gain the attention they crave. They know it is not commonly held belief, or so it is said about declarations like that. There are also those who believe we are all part of elaborat...

9 likes

Finally

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #104

Finally a night alone. The rat race continues, everyone striving for more, better. It never seems to end, and worse they want me to be part of it. Being with people constantly doesn’t allow one the time to be oneself. We always have to be someone that conforms to one mold or another. We can never truly be when with others, who we know ourselves to be. We have to primp and prune, remain quiet, laugh, sometimes be forced to sing. God I hate karaoke. It is not that it is embarrassing for me because I have...

9 likes

Half Moon Bray

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #104

“Are you coming tonight?” Why do we always have to be going someplace. Not that I don’t enjoy going out, but sometimes I think we do things, like go out, just to have an excuse to avoid one another. Being physically alone is a one way of keeping others out, but the same can be true of being with others. Getting lost in the interaction. It taking the necessity of sharing from one level and places it on another, a more nebulous, unassuming one. We do this intentionally at times to provide a form of escape from things we don...

5 likes

A Reflection of You

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #104

Smiles, handshakes, guffaws when appropriate, all the tricks we pick up over time to hide who are. We learn to manipulate the theme of our story to become the hero or heroine everyone expects, whether they exist or not. We pick up our traits from observing what we believe works well for others. That person surrounded by followers, listening to his or her every word as if God speaks to only them, and they have not only all the answers we are looking for, but the reasons behind the answers. People are basically the same. No one...

11 likes

Picturesque

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #103

“What’s that?”“I don’t know for sure. Someone’s photo that slipped out of this book I picked up at the library. I think it’s a young girl, or possibly a boy. Hard to tell, it’s so grainy and old. The black and white is more like brown and browner. My Father had a whole cigar box full of pictures like this. I’d ask him about who the people were when he’d pull them out from under his bed. He’d look at them, and kind of drift off into dream space. I’d ask who they were? If they were relatives, friends, an...

11 likes

Cross On a Hill

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #103

She told me she lived at the end of the block. There was only one house at the end of the row of what had once been an assortment of homes and apartment buildings, now a nearly vacant island. I assumed from what she'd told me, it had to be where she lived. The cities need for more highways brought about the acquisition and subsequent demolition of homes that had been turned into rental units as the cost of heating and maintaining them escalated, and individual owners couldn’t afford the cost of living in them any longer. So they m...

10 likes

Have You Ever

Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #103

Have you ever noticed how once some thing gets into your head, it’s twice as hard to get it out than when you let it in? I suppose that is because we let all sorts of things in, without really paying attention, even recognizing it is happening. Involuntary absorption of external stimuli that have no definitive purpose, but exist all the same. They just end up in our heads, collecting dust, well I guess it would have to be brain dust, but then I don’t know if there is such a thing, but you get the idea. What I’m talking ab...

11 likes