Rhododendron Souffle'

By Michael Romeo

Begin your journey through the mind of a story-teller with this strange compilation..

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Romeo
• Release date: Jun 16, 2013

Michael Romeo

In the Summer of 2011, feeling the weight of 30 years press down, I decided to hitch-hike across the USA from Maryland to California. I am now 33 years old and still trying to liberate the stories trapped in my head. Also, still working on the book about that journey. Strive on, untiringly.

Book preview

Rhododendron Soufflé

Short Stories and Poems

by

Michael Romeo

©2013 Michael Romeo

Smashwords Edition

I don’t know where the title came from. It just popped in my head, like everything else I write.

Table of Contents

Stories

The Spilling Thirst

Umbrella Elevator

In Mysterious Ways

Dead Battery

Knowledge City Blues

Universal Tribunal

Doppelganger

The Basement

The Haunted Room

Death Holds No Sway

Lesson

Sun Satchel

A Mirror Turned – Published in The Writer’s Eye Magazine ©2010 Michael Romeo

Poems

Tesnus

untitled

Infinity

Sara

Providence

Shine

To those who for Glory search

Things in this moment

The Mistress

realizing/understanding

The Breeze – Published in Capital Region Poets Magazine, ©2011 Michael Romeo

The Spilling Thirst

In the backroom of a bar, by the refrigerator, was an old kitty litter tray. In the tray, sat a plastic garbage bag knotted shut. No one knew what was inside.

Many conjectured, some hypothesized and others didn’t give a shit. Nobody wanted to open it and confront the most horrifying figment of their nightmares come true.

Conversations about said bag went thusly;

Go on, feel it.

I don’t wanna feel it.

C’mon touch it. a tentative poke. Feels like...

I don’t care!

What do you think it is?

I don’t know and I don’t want to know!

Let’s open it.

"Look, you wanna know what it is so bad you open it!"

I didn’t say I wanted to know what it was.

Well, I’m not opening it.

Everyone who came in was invited to come back and proffer opinion. Most agreed on one point. It was squishy. This only led to more terrible visions and imagined constructs.

A sadistic man had emptied out the insides of a cat. That’s what the bag held.

No, it’s a placenta! The pre-mature stillborn of a drug addled pre-teen mother. That’s what lies in the bag.

I must admit feeling Pandora’s blood stir within me as well, so I stole back to see for myself.

There it was.

I hefted it. Felt gelatinous eons and galaxies trapped within flow in my hands. It was warm.

I must know. the words came from my lips though I could swear I never spoke.

I opened the door to the outside and rested the bag on the railing. My knife flashed in my hand. The bag emptied.

Do you want to know what was inside, dear reader? Shall I reveal the mysterious substance to you?

It was water

UMBRELLA ELEVATOR

He steps onto the elevator, newspaper tucked under his arm, morning coffee in hand. The doors close. The elevator moves. The wait begins. This is his last job.

There's no doubt his quarry will be here today. The mark never misses a Thursday.