Monday, November 14, 2005

Miscarriage



Word Riot
October 2005 Issue

Fiction: Miscarriage
by Robert Lewis


You wanna know what makes me hard? Senseless gore. I'm talking about heads severed from necks with blood geysers hosing out. I'm talking about entrails dangling from leafless autumn trees, making the squirrels slip and fall. I'm talking about babies run over by lawnmowers.

Now, I'm no sociopathic murderer. Necrophiliac. Anything like that. My enjoyment of horrible things is strictly for blackly comedic amusement. I like my vulgarity to be farcial and giggleworthy, which leads me to Miscarriage by Robert Lewis.

It's not quite funny, you see. Instead of over the top gutscaping, Lewis' story actually uses vile imagery to imbue emotional depth. Hard to believe, I know, but he does it effectively. Would you care for an excerpt?

“Seth? Could you... uh, come in here?” Lisa’s voice sounded far away as it came to me through the cheap, wooden bathroom door. We had come here, to the apartment I shared with my mother, to smoke some dope and come down off the acid we had taken earlier.

I turned the knob, and went in.

The room was awash in blood.

Lisa stood in the corner, a soaked green towel between her legs. Her face, even though she was only in her mid-twenties, looked twice that right now, and whiter than Casper the Friendly Ghost’s. Her bloody fingerprints were all over the faucet and toilet.

“I think I’m having a miscarriage,” she said.


Appetizing, right? And yes, there is some humor in this story. You'll have to read it to find out. I heartily encourage you to click over to wordriot and enjoy yourself. I've been reading stories there for a few months now, and I've enjoyed every one.