© 2013 by Robert Ciesla
“A Minimum Threshold of Coolness” was first published in Linguaphobous Magazine
“Video Woman” was first published in Black Heart Magazine
“Mission to Dreamland” was first published in Unlikely Stories
ISBN 9783955770167
Visit www.robertciesla.com for more information
A Minimum Threshold of Coolness
by Robert Ciesla
Video Woman
by Robert Ciesla
Mission to Dreamland
by Robert Ciesla
There's something about fluorescent lights that I had forgotten long ago. It's not the schizophrenia-inducing short-wave ultraviolet or the constant low buzzing that's designed to comatose kids into submission. It's the property to display the full atomic spectrum of the basketball-toting guy who was spoon-fed with confidence since day one only to take a dump on kids like us. It's the smirk of an asshole. It's time to re-unite with the class of '98. Only this time I have my mentor with me.
Avoiding eye-contact we sit down beneath the potently fluorescing phosphor with the rest of them; we walk as one. My pupils still belong to a highschool play version of Barnes in Platoon: take the pain motherfucker! It's those insomniac's 4 am astral claymores that make you limp like me. Throw in a few non-productive panic attacks and all the websites you browsed like the other kids exchanged STDs by the Amazon river and you'll know exactly what I went through.
Let's take a moment to assume the tear-jerking position. In it there's no room for social relativism.