My Cardboard Balcony

Frogs and Cheese by Belinda Roddie Feeding frogs brie by the sticky sliver outside, where the bayou breeze tickled my nose just right, I thought I saw the moon furrowing its rocky brow at me. Which I suppose could make sense, if, well, it was actually made of coagulated artisan dairy.

I'm guessing the OneWord webmaster is on vacation? We'll see if OneWord gets updated tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

I Smelled Bacon by Belinda Roddie It was everywhere. I swear, the odor - fucking everywhere. On my jeans, on my shirts, on the sheets of my bed. Even on the seats of my girlfriend's car. It wasn't accompanied by any other savory aroma. No bleu cheese, no chicken or barbecue. Not even a fluffy pancake to rival the salty jab to the nostrils every morning at six am when I woke up. So finally, I told myself that maybe, just maybe, having a "Cook and eat bacon anywhere" rule in my apartment wasn't necessarily the wisest idea when I had three unshaven, goofy, and very pork-enthusiastic roommates abusing the frying pans and sizzling enough butter to choke a horse.

No OneWord update today...again. I hope no one running the site has died. 'Cause that would be le sadness. Poet Corner's comin', though!

Everyone Except Laurie by Belinda Roddie Everyone except Laurie drank rum, smoked cigars, dipped their cold toes into colder water, and sang songs to appease the moon so it wouldn't get too full and drive them all half-mad. But Laurie stayed in her room, stringing and re-stringing her mandolin, the tuning never perfect, trying to strum a war cry for the cosmos to scream in rebellion, to suck the snobby planet dry.

No OneWord update today. Tomorrow it is, then.

"You misspelled my name." She bristled. "What?" "You misspelled my name," I repeated. "It's got two n's and a y. Not one n and an i." "...Danny?" "Yeah." She shook her head. "That's a boy's name," she said. "You're Dani from now on." "No, I'm not." "Yes, you are," she argued, brandishing her pencil. "I'm not changing it." I brandished my fist in reply. "You sure you want to stick to that? Because I think you're going to spell it correctly."