about the author
Woody Skinner holds an MFA from Wichita State University, and he’s currently a PhD student at the University of Cincinnati. His fiction has appeared in journals like Mid-American Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Hobart, and Booth, and his debut story collection is forthcoming from Atelier26 Books.
∧
font size
∨
The Babies of Tampa, Florida
Woody Skinner
Land onshore wearing ocean-swollen diapers. Buy tailored rayon suits and gator-skin loafers. Bathe in vats of crab-leg butter. Cry awake with chainsaw shrieks. Purchase two-bedrooms in Largo. Watch daytime TV till their eyes kernel into cashews. Scour the beach for freckled breasts. Suck and suck on the shore. Cook into fat crabs, pinchers gripping nipples. Plop onto sand and skitter into a rising surf.