in the back–swoller
of a shot glass
forgetting the clear cup was not a shot glass
but actually
a milk glass
and in the bottom were the remnants
of cinnamon and vanilla
not the ash from a little cigar.

Michael Hammerle is completing his MFA thesis at the University of Arkansas at Monticello where he has taught composition. He holds a BA in English from the University of Florida. He is the founder of Middle House Review. His fiction has been published in The Best Small Fictions 2017 selected by Amy Hempel. His prose and poetry has been published in Split Lip Magazine, New World Writing, Louisiana Literature, After the Pause, the Matador Review, Drunk Monkeys, New Flash Fiction Review, BULL, the Temz Review, and many more magazines. He lives and writes in Gainesville, FL.