Category: Fiction

Stories and poems by Thomas Hudson

Review: Killing Commendatore

I became familiar with the Japanese author Haruki Murakami during my current fiction-gorging phase. How could I have been unfamiliar with such a gifted author? It’s not an excuse but I go through long periods during which I don’t read fiction. Murakami’s style is first-person intimate heightened with surrealism; all of it served very imaginatively.…

Poem: From the backseat of my aunt’s Chevy

From the backseat
her red hair an accusation.
Thin, careworn, and cunning
burnt forever by that long-ago season;
she knows the wrong things.

Dissolute pools
trapping the blue sky,
her mascara-smeared eyes lie,
looking backly.

“This is how the world is,”
nodding,
“this is how the world is.”

Her disjoint face abandons
the words she forces;
words are flight,
purposed for betrayal.

The Fall creeps in,
steals what is not hers;
is merciless.

Status
Tom Hudson

Here is a short–one paragraph(!)–story I wrote:

The day was sunny when we launched our new boat on the Huron River. But Lake Erie weather is notoriously changeable and by the time we covered half of the 10 miles to our dock, angry clouds broke over us with terrific force. Howling winds and roiling waves made the final leg of the journey unforgettable. When we finally made the calm waters of the Vermilion River, my son and I gave a prayer of thanksgiving–it was a miracle. After docking the boat, we surveyed The Betty Jane and discovered she had come through the ordeal with flying colors, which was more than could be said for us.

 

Poem: On and on played they

In the corner of the ruined room,
she was crying,
frightened of herself
and angry at us.

‘Freedom is full of monsters.
Just get out.’

I ran to summer
in the next room,
where the Goes Orchestral band members,
led by the red-haired midget on saxophone,
made intricate, drug-induced patterns on the stage.

On and on played they.
I wish they were more self-critical.

Poem: Why do I remember this?

Why do I remember?
I’ve carried this,
and now–see?–here it is.

Guided by a compulsion (that has never left me)
I painted the walls of my mother’s house
the entire length of the hallway;
floating above the floor–I was light.

You’ll laugh, but it was art.
That’s the simple truth.

My mother didn’t see it that way,
in fact, she was outraged.
Again you’ll laugh, but I was flabbergasted.
I didn’t understand her.

Poem: Full-Blood Moon

Through the narrow window, the full-blood moon floated in the black water of the bathtub, next to where you laid with your face against the wall sobbing. Pressing my cheek to yours, I glimpsed, the unfurled flags of defeat and something I didn’t understand. Aug., 2013