Greg Lemon: You'll Never Walk Alone

The Champion Series

Guest author:

Victor D. Sandiego

Presenting the fiction of:

Greg Lemon

About two years ago, when I started Dynamic Creed, I not only wanted to publish my fiction, but also to find others with compelling risk-taking work. A few months in I found Greg Lemon and his publication You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Let’s talk about Greg Lemon.

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I’ve been fascinated with Greg’s virtuosity. He has a way of slowly dipping into something that at first may seem to be a tranquil pool of dreams. In one sense it is, but it’s one that soon starts to churn with an underwater volcanic energy.

Greg’s work requires attentive reading. At times he weaves long complicated thoughts together in a wholly articulate stream, one punctuated with joy and sadness and madness and precision, and one that leaves us in a state of wonder. There’s a certain scientific quality within Greg’s stories. That’s not to say dry or academic. Far from it. His stories are carved and created with an exactness that gives them a brilliant shine.

Without giving too much away, I’d like to touch on two of Greg’s pieces. They both start off somewhat innocently, but like a magician who transforms a dove into a tiger , both stories are not what they first seem.

Moon Shot

Moon Shot

I remember the day of my cosmic awakening like it was yesterday and tomorrow and today.

So begins our journey from the mystical to the natural to the surreal as the young narrator discovers that one thing after another has altered. Falling leaves suspend in midair; strangers have familiar noses; communication takes on new forms. And surrounding all odd events is something not only of importance to the narrator himself, but to the entire universe.

Near the center of the story, a sort of gravitational vortex forms, an intense orbital whirlpool that swirls the reader around and around, and in the swirling, forces us to come to terms with the difference between what we assume to be true and what actually is. Or, as Greg puts it:

An infinite loop of life

Like most of Greg’s work, this piece drags our suppositions and assumptions into the light where we see that they’re not what we may have always believed them to be.

Please Don’t Feed The Wall

Please Don't Feed The Wall

The little doll sat on the shelf in the Freedom Center gift shop, and Matilda just had to have it.

Starts off pretty innocent. Girl. A doll. But in very short order, we realize that we’re in deeper than we thought.

But when Matilda picked the doll up and examined it more closely, a greater truth began to reveal itself to her. Beyond the coifed facade lay something more. A wounded child lost in the dark, crying out for help. An injured husk in search of its soul.

I don’t want to spoil the read, but allow me to say that Please Don’t Feed The Wall is not only humorous and absurd, it’s also an indictment of our inability to see beyond what’s pitched to us as everlasting truth, and a loving criticism of the status quo. It’s also grounded in a reality that only differs in degree and detail to that which we currently experience, one in which long lines of people simply accept without questioning, and fail to learn from what came before. It’s fitting, too, that Matilda, a child, sees things that others don’t. All in all, a topical and beautiful piece.

Greg Lemon

is a writer that treats his readers as smart and capable. His insights and expressive prose lead us gently to places we may not have seen before. Take a read of these two pieces and others. I think you’ll enjoy. I know I do.

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Victor D. Sandiego

is the author of Dynamic Creed. He writes creative fiction from his home in the desert on the edge of society. Stray dogs and scorpions welcome.

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