No Angels
Sarah Eberhardt
She told me her name was Jordan. The tips of her
tattooed wings were just visible beneath the hem of her shirt and
I had to make an effort to yank my gaze away and meet her eyes,
glittering with unholy promises. No angel, this one.
Solitary Value
Jen Knox
“I cannot believe you spoke. The Newswoman spoke. What does it mean?” Nancy tried to capture Alice ’s gaze and repeated, “What does ‘Three days,’ mean, Alice ?”
When Does Love End?
Stephen Busby
Love ends then as soon as a decision’s been reached, as soon as he’s decreed it. But they’ve just arrived at the coast; they’re at the beginning of the week in the rented cottage that he’s found: the place where life and love were going to sort themselves out.
The Doctor and His Wife
Lawrence F. Bassett
The arrival of the doctor’s float plane on the lake each August was a considerable highlight of our summers, right up there with the big fireworks on the Fourth and the beauty pageant to crown -- what else could we have called her? -- “The Lady of the Lake.”
Things Found on a Beach
Juliet Kemp
Dawn. A young woman sits on the beach, staring out at the horizon, a bracelet in her hands. Her expression hovers between anger and desolation.
Urban Shrines
Anna Alexandra Isacson
Distracted by the message, Crystal just about tripped over a
towering bin of cast off implants. She grabbed a silicone 600cc (DD)
off the top. Her flame-haired therapist was teaching her strategies
to help her cope with general stress and the break-up of her marriage.
The Lesson in the Mashed Potatoes
Rich Seeber
Mashed potatoes dripped off the serving spoon like runny melted cheese.
There you have it, Marnie thought with something like glee.
The consistency of a marriage.
Giambi
Valerie Lewis
Baseball is the opposite of clinical depression.
Depression is heavy and cold and stagnant. Baseball is warm.
It's sunlight on bright green grass and crowds of people all
chanting for the same thing. Baseball is junk food and falling asleep
in an easy chair.
Chin Music
T.R. Healy
For a while that summer, in tribute to the great ball player, we adopted certain mannerisms we associated with him. We blessed ourselves before we stepped into the batter's box, announced balls and strikes and runs scored in Spanish, even cursed in his tongue when we were pitched too tightly and brushed back from the plate.
Cubs Suck
Salvatore Marici
A dollar gets us in where NASA conducts experiments / on the 300 fans who absorb lost games /
like black holes absorb light
The Negro Leagues: A Praise Song
Steve Klepetar
Song in the wind, a Kansas City wind rising / in shadow, snappin' at dust like Satchel's curve /
hitter dazed on his heels, or a streaking blur / along the river
Send comments to: editor (at) slowtrains (dot) com.
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Rave On
November 21, 2008
Welcome to Slow Trains, where the postcards never stop.
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Slow Trains in print & Best Online Journals, guest-edited by Pam Houston
Singing Josquin
Paul Graham
The attraction was not religious; it was purely aesthetic. I wanted to live inside the music, wanted to be born up on the currents of harmony and chant.
sophistication pales
against
the rhythm
of slow trains
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How I Jeopardized My Sanity
Rosemary Mild
The very next day, I get my marching orders. Be at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on February 21 at 11:30 a.m. The test will consist of fifty questions.
Singing Josquin
Paul Graham
The attraction was not religious; it was purely aesthetic. I wanted to live inside the music, wanted to be born up on the currents of harmony and chant.
The First Snow
Lynn Oldach-Engle
Many years ago, my family left our home in the tropical warmth of the Caribbean and moved to a small New England town north of Boston. Steeple-tiered churches and wooden buildings with brick facades replaced the vibrant, paint-box-colored cement houses of our youth.
Our continuing section on peace & politics during these critical times
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In a Pemex in Hermosillo
Rose Hunter
The stores with the placards and the people / shouting “Mochilas!” /
are packing up as I watch / the road flood into the parking lot /alongside the gas
pumps
Sensazione
Susan M. Williams
Somewhere, a painting looks back at you / with a blank expression. Did you hear that? /
It whispers, peering around the room
Carl Solomon’s Shirt
John Dale Bright
Safe from what!? It’s from Ginsy I should be safe! /
Look, I meet this guy, okay? The nuthouse—we’re both there
On Listening
to Louis Prima and Keely Smith after an
Evening with Michelle
Michael J. Vaughn
The rough
and the
smooth
butterfly on
sandpaper
they razz
each other
the wheedling
piano the ride
cymbal the
black magic
is under
my skin
London by Night
Paul Walker
I'd been off coffee for two years / Then I sank some Turkish in Soho /
It hit me like a depth-charge / I couldn't sit still
Lengua
Elise Levitt
I stop at every centimeter / of your skin /
white as a blizzard / Or a blank space on a page
The Beginning of Worry
Walter James Preston
These days I only think about sleep / the euro, and how low the dollar is /
At present it's impossible / for me to think of things like: "The fabled romance between
the ocean and the breeze"
The Most Romantic City
James Anderson
Minneapolis is the most romantic / city in the world where /
steam rises from gutters and / snow falls in May
Postcard
Transcendental Child
Doug Ramspeck
And because I wanted you to join me /
in the sleeping bag, and because our bodies /
were damp with sweat when we awoke /
in the mornings, we waded naked into the shallows /
and bathed amid the yellow lotus and arrowheads
Books from Slow Trains writers
All material in Slow Trains is copyrighted to the original authors and may not be reproduced without permission. Violators will be prosecuted.
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