derekosborne's profile

Is it me, or should our children be very, very frightened? I just lost another business contract to the Chinese. On a 1.8M sale they are roughly half the money, and they will do a very good job, actually better than our Atlanta factory, and it will be on time, and they will send the customer a nice thank you gift after receiving their final payment, which is in escrow at a bank in San Francisco, probably a bank with seven or eight percent of its cash basis backed by Chinese securities. I watc...

Speak, Memory. No, not you Vladimir.

Girl on the Plane We sat in the airport café her eyes still green once blue jeans and black boots down dusty barn smells of bridle leather Recalling her shape in the shaft light that morning sun shower drenching our youth those days of desire I smiled She laughed We ordered some coffee as forty years flew, her hand reaching out over time and the table all gold and blue running river rusting shadow that day together I followed the cup to her lips For parents not home and autumn leaves turning ...

Medic We’ve run the boat up onto a shoal and into some reeds for cover. They just keep bringing them down. There isn’t any room. I try to tell the lieutenant but he’s already lost it. He laughs and jumps off the boat. I’m used to small arms fire and toe poppers but these guys have mortar wounds. They’re blown apart. The floor of the cabin is slick with blood. The pump’s not working. I can’t even see the toe of my boot. The air is so bad I have to get out. Now they’re putting guys along the ra...

The Crash I was already running when the plane went down. I had been standing near the hanger, saw the wall of rain sweep across the field, roll like a wave and catch the tail - I knew they would crash. The little plane dipped one wing and smashed into the woods. The end of the runway lit up as the fuel tanks ruptured. The storm, triumphant, cracked the night open and roared with delight. I went charging out across the field, jumping ditches and flying all on my own, fighting the wind and the...