Nick Spiess

When I was six years old I drew Michaels. Now I am 23 years old and I still do Michaels but in a different way. Michaels can be anything. I assign to Michaels certain characteristics that they’re allowed to be. Michaels can be melancholic. Michaels can be normal or weird. Michaels can be bald but can also have some hair. Most Michaels are bald though and they don’t really have bodies, so they are sort of just a face and a head. The primordial Michaels used to have legs that stuck out from their heads kind of like blades of grass. I imagined them as spiky, pointy, and uncomfortable. Michaels don’t really have appendages anymore because they are more refined. It's less refined to have appendages. I didn’t ever let them have hands because they might grab something that they weren’t allowed to grab. I made a Michael yesterday. Michael has a long nose, a long face. Michael has a large, sort of misshapen head. Michael has a scowl plastered on his face but his eyes are scared. Michael is probably scared this time. I hope that maybe Michael can try not to be so scared but that is the way he is right now so he’ll probably be that way for a while. Michael is also bald because most Michaels are bald. I considered adding a hair piece to Michael but it just didn’t feel right so he’s got a chrome dome, a pate, a shiny head. Michael’s going to go in the oven soon. Hot! He needs to dry off before he can do that. He could explode in the oven if he’s not dry. I hope Michael will be okay because he felt so nice in my hands. I wonder if Michael liked or somehow knew what my touch meant. Michael, please understand. It’s all that you can do. Don’t be scared, Michael. I love you, Michael.

Nicolas Spiess is a 23 year old writer, artist, and musician based in Chico, California. His most favorite things in the entire world are smiling, loving, laughing, and playing. He is the drummer for the alternative rock band The Catacomb Club and is a published writer in New Medium Magazine. He currently studies history with a minor in English at California State University, Chico. Nicolas is interested in the mechanisms by which the internet produces and is produced by external cultural phenomena. His Instagram page @ihaveinterestingideas and website terencemichaelwilliams.comare attempts to make meaning of life in the digital age while maintaining and preserving traces of the real world. Nicolas self-publishes short stories, poetry, music, and videos on his website. When he was 11, Nicolas moved back to California from Missouri and he was so sad for a while but now he is mostly happy.