My Cardboard Balcony

To See The World As Lobster by Belinda Roddie To see the world as lobster: There would be more colors than are painted on an aurora borealis souvenir. More dimensions and shades and hues at a film premiere. Aggressive mantis shrimp sees all: Humans can view the neon hallucinations from over a dozen tiny perceptors as nothing more than a fever dream.

He heard the rumbling before he saw the truck, so he was able to jump out of the way just in time at the rickety red pick-up rolled onto the gravel driveway. Once the dust had literally settled, he heard the jingling of spurs as the brown toes of worn down cowboy boots emerged from the driver's side. Deputy Sheriff Teresa Hawley, dark-haired and freckled, hopped down to the ground with a slight grunt, then pushed the brim of her hat up and grinned.

William had a receding hairline, just like his father before him, and his father's father, and his father's father's father. Still, he did his best to groom the rest of the locks he had. He'd obsessively comb each clump of strands, using the finest gel to slick it back. Still, his forehead now resembled a car's windshield catching the sunlight. There was no way around it: Alopecia was a real bitch.

by Belinda Roddie Once upon a time, there was a teacher ready to start their first day of school very soon. So they had little to no energy to write a legitimate short story. ...Nyeh.

Wow. Guess I didn't really have much of a summer, huh? In just three days, school starts again where I work. I've revised my syllabus. I've added students to Google Classrooms. I've gone to two work days on campus, where I've dealt with a new main classroom, a new studio, and some technological issues. I have chosen most of my Yearbook editors, and while I'm still navigating my unit schedule, I am pretty much ready to roll for my English classes. It's going to be an interesting year. More difficult than last year? I dunno. Maybe it'll just be difficult in different ways. I think my Yearbook staff is more grounded this year, though I have no idea how my English classes will turn out. A student came by and introduced himself, so that was cool, but we'll see. I've got two very male-heavy classes at the beginning of the day, so we'll see how that goes. Teaching at this school for a second year will certainly be an adventure. But for now, I ...

Urbia by Belinda Roddie In this city, we eat snakes for breakfast. With coffee.