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Too RealBy Lisa Pellegrini QuailBellMagazine.com The abandoned office building is run by vomit-green shadows and dismembered mannequins. Their rat-gnawed arms and legs are strewn about the spiral staircase that jiggles like colorless gelatin, twisting through sweat and panting up to a zebra-print door that glows with faint words of warning scrawled in metallic coral lipstick. Blood-splashed streets of yesteryear checkered with sticky tumbleweeds lead to a periwinkle ocean that moans like it is drunk on rum. It starts off as deep as death’s invigorating chill in late August, the stagnant water as high as a redwood. Must dive in. Save loved ones. Close eyes. Hold breath. Burst forth to land on concrete. Squid-ink sky drips down like sap. Milky red figure’s crank-caller breath injects my jugular with needle-like pressure. Concrete turns into moving ramp. Run up escalator, skipping steps. Get to the top-- Fade to midnight. Credits roll. Lisa Pellegrini is a graduate of Beaver College (now Arcadia University) with a Bachelor's degree in English. Her poetry has appeared in the anthologies Voices and Whispers by Iliad Press. In 2005, she wrote and self-published a romantic mystery novel, Kiss the Devil Goodbye, through Borders' Personal Publishing program. She has written and published over 160 poems and short stories on StoryMash.com, a collaborative writers' website. The Breadcrumbs widget will appear here on the published site.
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