My Cardboard Balcony

To Let The World Explode by Belinda Roddie To let the world explode, the one that I worked so hard to create and to maintain - with its tall mountains and majestic sky, its deep oceans and rippling, mighty plains - to let it collapse and look just the same as it had been before I arrived here and left a book embossed with my own name - aye, that could be a fate that holds less fear than that of attempting to salvage all. I often hear advice of how I should fight for what I've build 'til I'm 'gainst the wall, but these cold bricks do my shoulders no good; I am hunched over, worn out from the pain, my heart rate quickening, both my worlds strained.

I never drink coffee, but at night, I'm wired. I hate afternoons 'cause I'm always tired. I manage a store where the best are hired, with the wife and the little baby boy I sired. Now time to eat my tiramisu - I like the coffee flavor, just not the coffee brew.

Oh, Sweetness by Belinda Roddie Curious how the elation melts as quickly as cotton candy. It sticks to your fingers, though - the threads of it, the wisps, the fraying fragments. Somehow, you can still taste it days later, like a hot summer solstice. Like a ferris wheel ride into outer space. Like the lingering sensation of a cool finger on an arched back.

We went for a bike ride around my old university campus and took a tour of downtown, where I could see that the Rustic Coffee Stop had been replaced by a quaint, purple-tinged cupcake shop, and the diner where I also got a grilled cheese and tomato soup had been remodeled and was now serving way more customers. We stopped for a drink of water, our foreheads warm and wet with perspiration, and my friend turned my attention to the nearest street corner.

Miracle Mutant by Belinda Roddie This little fish grew feet from its eyes so it could see everything it walked upon Never mind that it couldn't breathe out of water because that minute of strolling made its short life worthwhile

I didn't like the way she handled her new job. In truth, she had never deserved to get promoted, especially not over me. She ignored important tasks, disrupted our work flow, and cut corners all the time. And when we called her out on it, she'd turn into a maelstrom of denial and rage. "I am the boss here!" she shrieked one day when I so much as questioned her on a slew of typos in a quarterly report write-up. "I am the boss! And don't you forget it!" That night, I checked on the Internet to see if I could murder my superior for being a toxic waste of space.

Same Time Next Week by Belinda Roddie I met my girlfriend at a strip mall dojo, watching her as she karate chopped a cinder block. We went out for Thai food after I swiped my blue belt, and she complimented me on how well I handled spicy curry. Somehow, I found her concentration on the little things so alluring, and the way she bent my arm back was super sexy. I had always wanted a girl I could take on in a fight. It was even better when I lost.