Tony Marsh
Bio
I am a writer who focuses on themes of deification, magic, war, and comedy.
Achievements (1)
Stories (17/0)
Sympathy for a Dragon
There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. The elder folk remember a time when spotting a dragon was rarer than an albino crocodile creeping in Perth Marsh (which is rare, but not too) or apples bursting into flames on the branches where they hang because Dan was displeased (which is super rare, but does happen). Yes, there was a time before dragons menaced the Valley of Mannaz. But that was yore, and this is now.
By Tony Marsh2 years ago in Fiction
Why I Thanked My Scammer
At age 37, I became interested in money. Before that, I recoiled from anything having to do with money. Then I discovered a podcast with a rabbi who changed the way I thought about money. "Money is God's way of making us realize we need each other." I hadn't thought of money as a spiritual or philosophical medium before. The old adage that money is the root of evil may have been lodged somewhere in my subconscious.
By Tony Marsh2 years ago in Trader
Gee Dad, I Goofed
Tommy Parker was eleven when he found out that most other eleven year-olds no longer wet the bed. He had been invited to a birthday sleepover party for his friend Tristan and had fallen asleep without remembering to put on his absorbent underpants his mother had packed for him and in the night he had an accident.
By Tony Marsh2 years ago in Fiction
In the Land of Coffee and Sunflowers
On the day of her seventeenth birthday, Mildred Tuna vanished from the Rose Kingdom to become a rose on Earth. Charles Tuna thought his daughter too young to go to Earth to become a rose, but that’s the way things were going in the Rose Kingdom. Mildred’s mother Melinda Tuna was twenty-one the first time she went, and at the time that was young. She became a pink rose in the garden of an eighty-seven year old widower in Delaware. Charles was twenty-five his first time. He had been a wild white rose in Auckland, New Zealand. Most inhabitants of the Rose Kingdom were selected at least once in their lifetime to go to Earth and become a rose. Mildred Tuna received her selection notice by mail — the most usual way — and although she had not yet finished her last year of high school, she would go become a rose.
By Tony Marsh3 years ago in Fiction
Jam Out with your Clam Out
Clouds parted and a speck appeared among aureate rays of sunlight. Beak tucked between her wings, a swan fell from the sky toward a chrysocolla colored sea. A second before splashing down, the swan unfurled her wings and took flight. She soared above volcanic archipelagos and islands of beige sand. As if guided by Gaia. She was on her way to Japan.
By Tony Marsh3 years ago in Fiction
Stars of Track and Field
From the top of the bleachers, you see there’s a fellow trotting around the track. The sun is newly-risen, and sits low in the sky. The jogger passes underneath it, coming around the bend in your direction. He’s got on a royal blue track suit — jacket and pants — and white running shoes. His hair hangs just above his shoulders; it’s scrunchy, and it bounces as he jogs. On the far side of the track, there’s a brick building with words in white capital letters that say: Comanche Stadium. Beyond the structure, you see a field of Texas Bluebonnets in the cool blue hue.
By Tony Marsh3 years ago in Fiction
The Wading Heron
Releasing its desire, the wading heron is rewarded with lunch. George read these words in a copy of the I Ching — a book of philosophy can also be used for divination. The way it works is that one flips coins, and based on the sequence of heads and tails that are flipped, you read a particular chapter and line from the I Ching book. It’s bibliomancy. Another way to do it is to pick up any old book of any shelf and open to a random page while focusing on a question in your mind and you open the book and point to a line without aiming for anything and there’s the answer to your question.
By Tony Marsh3 years ago in Fiction
- Second Place in SFS 4: Golden Summer Challenge
The Red ChapulínSecond Place in SFS 4: Golden Summer Challenge
A chapulín lit on the stone wall at the overlook outside the church on Cerro de San Miguel. Down in the valley, there are marketplace stalls that sell those meaty red locusts roasted and seasoned with lime and salt and wrapped in tortillas and to me they taste like tiny land-lobsters.
By Tony Marsh3 years ago in Feast