Wife's forty-fifth. Orchids, allergies, a TENS machine, and eleven poem drafts wrapped in clear cellophane.

Grandfather John Stoddard at ninety-two. Retirement village, Justin and Simon, and a window regulator for biscuits.

Float tank, magnesium, cold plunge research. Eight hours in the tank and the machine still thinks it knows your nervous system.

Three days of agent circus, a two-hundred-dollar brain fire, Uncle Simon on lag, a laser cleaner, and the real boss fight: kids with foam darts. Special highlight reel.

[STORY] Ten years. One scoop. Infinite circles. Phil wants crinkle you can wipe, Matt wants the passenger seat back, and the unfinished job becomes furniture.

First-name only, as requested.

— Whispering Murphy

whisperingmurphy.com

[STORY] Cousin on a motorbike still managing his own extrication from the stretcher. Just undo the strap. Just flick the Velcro. Wrong-sister hug, model-face kid, and the walk-to-the-car peppy beat. Public cut: name soup and other-driver heat left on the floor.

— Whispering Murphy

whisperingmurphy.com

Not understated. Season one keeps pulling the old tapes forward.

Statutory — the farm keeps asking machines questions that deserve a better answer.

Ice plunge from a car radiator in a deep freezer. So you don't know for sure then.

Hipcamp at Clancy's on Clarendon, soil biology vs the environment clause, WGA strike day.