Suitor

His arm had gone and burned up and all that he had left was char-enrobed bones. For all the world like a freshly barbecued rib, it hung from his shoulder still smouldering and smelling of well-done meat. With the most enormous of difficulties, he could swing the thing, but he could not bend it at the elbow. Could not clench or fan the spider-leg fingers. Could not swivel the gristle and ashbone wrist. He could only swing it.

He liked to tease the dog.

Heat was buried hidden in the marrow. Sometimes it caught, it sparked, it flared. A little air was all it took. A little wind through a patch, a chipped-away patch of ashbone armoring. And then some smoke, it coughed out, twirled together, flowed over the scorched meat, and blew out and off from the shoulder.

TO BE CONTINUED...

(After reading EVER by Blake Butler, I decided to write a suitor for the narrator.)

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CAVES by Matthew Simmons.

A review of CAVES by Matt Bell. Thanks, Matt!

Kendra Malone published a gchat with me to celebrate CAVES. Thanks, Kendra!

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UPDATES:

Oh, sure. Twitter.

Also, Matthew Savoca's book TOUGH! is almost finished at the almost finished Happy Cobra Books website. Just needs a couple of images added and a page for the credits.