Apr 07
After the Funeral The enormity of death can be too much at times; the finality of it, too overwhelming, so instead of contemplating prayers or words of solace, the void is filed with the ordinary. How important these sweet rituals, these sweet, sweet rituals of routine that once seemed so meaningless, but now hold the …
Apr 07
Persistence of Snowfall Do we ever think of Oedipus in his self-inflicted blindness? Do we think beyond incest and the priapic of kingship to see his suffering flourish in vivid Impressionist colors? The storm that will arrive tonight will camouflage us under snow. We’ll rise at dawn and ignite machines to hack a route through …
Apr 06
Our Serenade Everything was right about the morning. The way she woke after nine hours of solid sleep to discuss her dreams after an “I love you” in place of good morning. We keep each other company in the shower, morning music, the way she stops to kiss me while getting dressed or me holding …
Apr 05
MAGNIFIED 500X MARGARET RICHARDSON KNEW everything that was happening on her block before it happened. Always watching from behind her fence, near a birdfeeder, she kept tabs on all her neighbors’ dirty habits. Handsome Mr. Ushoom down the street was plagued by a dangerous obsession with high-stakes gambling. He always wore yellow bellbottoms when …
Apr 04
Eclectic The moment before the moment of pain— for example her gaze becomes deep as a lake after the autumn rains, full of drowned men. We walk alone in the park and the leaves fall, fall… Empty beer melancholy, we only have this life to live. Sharks You must be extremely cautious not to …
Apr 03
After it’s over The war pours the first drink of every evening after it’s over the war is a three am booty call that makes you sweat and scream after it’s over the war is the only story you remember around the campfire the only verse you remember of any song It’s a peach pit …
Apr 02
Empty Nest What’s the term for when a dad’s home alone, sitting in the corner of his living room left holding his feelings and fate, cradled in his arms like a fresh bouquet of carnations and consolations? And what’s it called when you have too much time to stop and smell the newly bloomed juxtaposes? …
Apr 01
Gramma K’s Apocalypse I would have rather been anywhere other than where I was, sprawled on the olive shag carpeting of Gramma K’s efficiency apartment, cringing beneath the beatific gaze of Pope John Paul II peering down from a three-year-old calendar tacked to the nicotine-stained wall. A Love Boat rerun played on the television. It …
Mar 30
Dance Lesson She was blonde and older than me we were both at a junior high school dance standing in opposite corners of the gymnasium talking to friends she walked through the sound activated shadows and asked me to dance wide eyed and off balance I nodded and was shoved out and into her arms …
