In the Shadow – Death in Mexico
Earl Smith We left McAllen Texas at nine in the morning and headed for the border. A four-hour drive down Mexico 101 would put us at Altavista in time for … Read More
Author: Chief
Earl Smith writes short stories, poetry, and essays focused on the human experience. Most of them are drawn from personal experience. He also writes action-adventure thrillers – often with a paranormal twist. In addition to published novels, his work has appeared in multiple literary journals. (https://www.smithtales.com/)
Runs in the Family
Earl Smith It wasn’t mad dogs and Englishmen crowding the streets, but tourists covered with oil. Summer in Key West. Midday was settling in. Time to find shelter. I headed … Read More
The Café Reunion
Earl Smith The café was small, tucked between a hardware store and a secondhand bookshop on a side street off Houston. Its name, Les Fleurs Perdues, was stenciled in fading … Read More
Synthetic Certainty
Earl Smith The seminar had gone off the rails. Students had become verbally abusive. Raised their voices. Exchanged accusations of hypocrisy – then stupidity. Claimed superior insight. He feared a … Read More
Ashes and Rain
Earl Smith ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Paris. City of lights. Couples on romantic walks. Holding hands in sidewalk cafés. Loving, longing glances. Gently promising smiles. I think of my wife. Paris reminds me … Read More
“Oh no, not again”
Redundancy, relentlessly recurringechoes through all the ages.Scenes, rehearsed billions of years beforeand lightyears away,a recidivating dance unendinglyrehearsed and reprised. ~~~~~~~~~~ An adolescently maladjusted Apollo advances,exuding pharmaceutically boosted masculinity.The damsel … Read More
This is the writer’s conundrum.
What you write should be original. But originality is the fine art of remembering while forgetting. Nothing I have ever written well came about without the experience of living most … Read More