When she saw the sun grasp the bricks
protecting the assembly, she knew, but the dolls
said, “Be hot.”
The pom-poms said, “Support the number
holders,” and the bright curvy cocktails said,
“Be owned.”
The silk scarves said, “Attract,” and her
female coworkers’ empty seats said, “Nurture.”
Then the number holders let her go.
After her twelfth interview, she receives
a twelfth rejection, but the sun grasps the bricks
that protect the assembly. She takes out her
sketch pad.
Douglas J. Ogurek is the pseudonym for a writer living somewhere on Earth. Though banned on Mars, his fiction appears in over fifty Earth publications. Ogurek founded the controversial literary subgenre known as unsplatterpunk, which uses splatterpunk conventions (e.g., extreme violence, gore, taboo subject matter) to deliver a positive message. He guest-edited Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction’s UNSPLATTERPUNK! and UNSPLATTERPUNK! 2 anthologies. Ogurek reviews films at that same magazine. Recent longer works include the young adult novel Branch Turner vs the Currants (World Castle Publishing) and the horror/suspense novella Encounter at an Abandoned Church (Scarlet Leaf Publishing). More at www.douglasjogurek.weebly.com. Twitter: @unsplatter