Touché by Keith Hoerner

I forage the forest floor for ways to kill you: Amanita Phalloides or Death Cap Mushrooms, Pokeweed Berries, and Ricinus Communis or Castor Bean. I find all three for a concoction triply sure to cut you down. But a cut in my own hand gives karma an open door. Touché.

Published in 100+ literary journals, Keith Hoerner (BS, MFA) is founding editor of the Webby Award recognized Dribble Drabble Review, as well as a Best Book and American Writing Finalist.

Swimming Through Shadowlands by Keith Hoerner

Deep below the lake’s murky surface, there sits—intact—a house. A two-story structure of Carpenter Gothic details like elaborate wooden trim bloated to bursting. Its front yard: purple loosestrife. Its inhabitants: alligator gar, bull trout, and pupfish. All glide past languidly—out of window sashes and back inside door frames. It is serene, and it is foreboding. Curtains of algae float gossamer to and fro. Pictures rest clustered atop credenzas. A chandelier is lit, intermittently, by freshwater electric eels. And near a Victrola, white to the bone, a man and a woman waltz in a floating embrace. 

Published in 100+ literary journals, Keith Hoerner (BS, MFA) is founding editor of the Webby Award recognized Dribble Drabble Review, as well as a Best Book and American Writing Finalist.