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Mad Dog

May 20, 2013/in Flash Prose, Flash Prose, Summer-Fall 2013 / by DJ Swykert

[flash fiction]

I believe God thinks in numbers. Most of what I know best can be described with an equation, numbers predicting an outcome, relating the position, velocity, acceleration and various forces acting on a body of mass, and state this relationship as a function of time. And isn’t that what we are, what everything is: accelerated particles in space time?

And this velocity of motion is what creates gravity and holds everything together. But what creates the motion? I think about this shit all the time. Until I feel like I only know one thing: nothing.

I sat out on the grass and opened a bottle of Mad Dog 20-20. Drank it to the bottom, sucked it in like a black hole swallowing light. Alcohol goes through the brain in stages, first the cerebral cortex, the thinking brain. A friendlier, more daring person emerges, and becomes ever more creative, imaginative, as the drug continues deeper into the brain. Last to go is the limbic brain. That’s when you go numb.

I got ultimate this night, left the past, present, and flew into my future. It was brilliant, until in the morning, when I stared into the eyes of a cop. I realized I had evolved, I was homeless. Passed out on the lawn, I had merged my present into my future and lost the past. I had become what I refused to change. There are no corners in a round expanding infinite universe. But I had turned one.

David SwykertDJ Swykert is a former 911 operator. His work has appeared in The Tampa Review, Detroit News, Monarch Review, Zodiac Review, Barbaric Yawp and Bull. His books include Children of the Enemy, Alpha Wolves, and The Death of Anyone. You can find him at www.magicmasterminds.com He is a wolf expert.

https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png 0 0 AudreyM https://lunchticket.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/lunch-ticket-logo-white-text-only.png AudreyM2013-05-20 12:43:282019-05-19 12:12:55Mad Dog

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Genre Archive

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Friday Lunch Blog

Friday Lunch! A serving of contemporary essays published the second Friday of every month.

Today’s course:

Being A Girl is Hard

November 28, 2025/in Blog / Shawn Elliott
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Diagnosis: Persisted or Silent Inheritance

November 7, 2025/in Blog / Paula Williamson
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The Queer Ultimatum Made Me Give My Own Ultimatum

September 26, 2025/in Blog / Lex Garcia
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Midnight Snack

Take a bite out of these late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

The Lilac and The Housefly: A Tale of Tortured Romanticism

October 24, 2025/in Midnight Snack / Nikki Mae Howard
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Dig Into Genre

May 23, 2025/in Midnight Snack / Lauren Howard
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The dreams in which I’m (not) dying

April 25, 2025/in Midnight Snack / paparouna
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Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every third Friday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

Till Death

May 15, 2026/in Amuse-Bouche, Translation / Lorea Canales, translated by Lia Galván
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Making Friends

May 8, 2026/in Amuse-Bouche, Flash Prose / Robert L. Penick
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Two Poems

May 1, 2026/in Amuse-Bouche, Poetry / Jessie Raymundo
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School Lunch

An occasional Wednesday series dishing up today’s best youth writers.

Today’s slice:

I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

May 12, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Brendan Nurczyk
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A Communal Announcement

April 28, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Isabella Dail
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Seventeen

April 14, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Abigail E. Calimaran
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Word From the Editor

Readers,

On December 23rd, 2024, I lost a dear friend of mine, Valerie Goldstein. She was a fellow teacher and writer, and she spent her young adult life being a voice for change. Valerie had organized protests, and her dream was to get into educational policy. When I heard the news of her death, I was grief-stricken. She was so full of life and happiness, and I thought that the world had lost another good one.

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