4 days agoJESUS THE BUSKERJESUS THE BUSKER By John Thomas Tuft Jesus the Busker was on the corner playing the unmistakable opening to Guns and Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine” on electric guitar with an amp and speaker attached. When he finished, he smoothly transitioned into Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer.” Passers-by would…Love3 min readLove3 min read
Sep 22FROM THE FREEZERFROM THE FREEZER By John Thomas Tuft The ancient Kelvinator chest freezer sat in the corner of the garage, a mixture of rust and mildew stains discoloring the sides halfway up, the old cloth-sheath-around-asbestos-insulation electrical cord fraying where it ran up the wall stud and plugged into the only outlet…Love5 min readLove5 min read
Sep 15CALL YOUR MOMCALL YOUR MOM By John Thomas Tuft This is fiction. If you’ve been in one hospital emergency department waiting room, you have pretty much been in them all. Rows of uncomfortable chairs, a couple of small tables with torn and battered magazines strewn across the tops, are of small…Love4 min readLove4 min read
Sep 11THE BIRTH OF ABSENCETHE BIRTH OF ABSENCE By John Thomas Tuft “It is hard to conceive of a feeling more powerful than that of being absolutely powerless,” said the woman in front of the room. “From it have come religions and messiahs, addictions, tyrants, ghosts, and fantasies of spiritual utopias. It may…Love4 min readLove4 min read
Sep 2CASPER BEARCASPER BEAR By John Thomas Tuft In the 1991 film, What About Bob?, Bill Murray plays a neurotic OCD patient, Bob, of psychiatrist Richard Dreyfuss, Leo, who has taken his family on vacation to a lake house in New Hampshire. Leo has published a book on his style of therapy…Love4 min readLove4 min read
Aug 26POETRY IN MOTIONPOETRY IN MOTION BY John Thomas Tuft Beside a stream, he watches the shadows of the leafy trees and darting insects draw a diorama in the wrinkled glass of the water. The frisson of the dreamlike state turns the sounds into a lullaby of late summer, the staccato of the…Love4 min readLove4 min read
Aug 18SHARDS OF SERENITYSHARDS OF SERENITY BY John Thomas Tuft Sally talks in her sleep. Her husband, Harry, says that sometimes that is the only way he knows what’s on her mind. Her murmurings, her whispers, her groans of anguish betray the pathways of her soul. When she awakens and he asks Sally…Love4 min readLove4 min read
Aug 11PASS THE EMPTYPASS THE EMPTY By John Thomas Tuft Friendship is one of life’s true miracles. A friendship that lasts a lifetime is perhaps the rarest of all precious gems, considered by those who know to be miracles in and of themselves. Such was the friendship of three people in the small…Love5 min readLove5 min read
Aug 4SUMMER WORKSUMMER WORK By John Thomas Tuft Early April in the Pittsburgh area can be a dance of cold and wet one day, sunny with hints of summer the next. Spring of 1975 was no different. Early April of that year found me just finished up with my Junior year at…Love5 min readLove5 min read
Jul 30THE LADY OF WHY-NOTTHE LADY OF WHY-NOT By John Thomas Tuft Big Chuck worked for a power company in a northern state as an electrical lineman. He made good money, worked hard, loved his wife, minded his P’s and Q’s, got all the exercise that he wanted on the job — pulling cable…Love4 min readLove4 min read
