“So they all went to get their digging spoons, and set to work, the eldest with his sterling silver baby spoon from very long ago; the middle child with her sea-shell-shaped sugar spoon;…

Speculative Friction By Claire Bateman     Reliable   Outside their trailers in dense evening light, the fed men gather to jack and block their cars’ known bodies.   They speak a strict…

Speculative Friction By Claire Bateman “A Pocket Introduction to Our Universe” What does our universe most like to do? To contort without any warning into nothing but corners, an awkward though not unbeautiful…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman “Another Poem On Blue”  Can I help it that I keep writing the same poem over & over again? No more than I can help being reborn into…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman Thinking East Why am I so reluctant to go home? My friend Mary has expressed it perfectly: There is a dearth of sky in Greenville. And my friend…

Speculative Friction Selection from “Disorientations,” a Travel Essay by Claire Bateman Excerpt from the section, “Castings Off” “1. All throughout this trip, I experience internal pressure from the desire to leave my car…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman Excerpt from the Section, “Storm Chasing” GREENVILLE South Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—7/11/11—“At nearly 80 mph, I realize that I’m not actually in motion at all. No matter how long I’m…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman                                   One of my current obsessions is finding ways to fuse the…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman GREENVILLE South Carolina—(Weekly Hubris)—6/13/11 Another selection from Locals, a recently completed fiction collection: “In this realm, everyone checks the atmospheric indices before each decision. In ordinary times, when…

Speculative Friction by Claire Bateman In the language of this realm, there are so many words for “knowledge” that they comprise an enormous collaborative document-in-progress referred to as “The Lexicon.” There is a…