About Red Tales

Here's an evolving electronic collection of short prose pieces, with a poem contributed occasionally. Brevity guides. Although sometimes a piece will run to 900 words, most pieces are much shorter. Here one may find erotica, flash fiction, brief observations, and modest improvisations. Another rule is that each piece must have something to do with"red"; at least the word has to appear in each piece functionally. . . . All pieces are numbered and titled, so there's a de facto table of contents running down the rail below, under "Labels" (scroll down a bit). Browse for titles that look interesting, if you like. Thank you for stopping by. Look for some red today, tonight.

"Flaming June," by Frederick Lord Leighton

"Flaming June," by Frederick Lord Leighton

Monday, July 29, 2019

271. Eccentricity Emergency

There's a point at which one's eccentricities create such a tangle of knotted growth that one must cover them as if they were mutant antlers anchored to wood covered in red velvet. In fact, there are times when one simply must not be oneself. Must behave as a conforming lackluster hologram so as not to startle, offend, alarm, disappoint,  confirm, or disgust. This is called acting or behaving responsibly. One can tell if it's working if people start treating you as if you were behaving conventionally. Agile small-talk, short-lived, may be one indication. Of course, through it all you may be thinking of the antlers in the basement, and the basement, and wanting to be there playing with the wires, carving wood, doing push-ups, perhaps listening to a vinyl long-playing record that hasn't accrued any particular significance in the culture. Of course, you will have your own equivalent of the basement. And the antlers.


hans ostrom 2019

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