September 2011
3 posts
6 tags
Slow Fridays
I’m sitting naked on the can at my mother’s house trying to remember what happened last night. Hot steam fills the room to mask the cigarette smoke from my mom. Between the alcohol and drugs the night and my dreams slur into a haze.
At the bar there was this kid, Jackie, that I hate. I grew up with his sleazy ass and had enough of a dose of him then. He sits in the booth with us trying to act...
I'm back...
I know I haven’t posted for a while, so here it is. I want some comments because I’m planning on changing my style a bit. Let me know what you think.
6 tags
American Heroes
Sitting on the front porch I fill my lungs with plumes of grey smoke. After smoking dope I love the taste and smoothness of cigarettes. With each deep sigh of an exhale I’m a dragon. The sun sits low in the after dinner sky and the pot makes me introspective/retrospective.
I am this way because of my father, the toothless prick of this city street. It doesn’t matter what city, because at the...
August 2011
1 post
Sorry for the hiatus.
I’ll be back posting next month. I’ve had a busy summer of adventures.
July 2011
3 posts
8 tags
Hitching and Hunting
The cool night makes my piss steam as it trickles down into the ditch. The silence on the road, and the complete blackness could be unnerving to some, but years of camping as a child have made it a preference to me.
The hum and clunk of the van’s engine as I step back inside breaks the peace. I sit in the front passenger seat. The small lights of the instrument panel eerily illuminate the...
6 tags
Caught
“…our lives are like a coin, and the two of us are opposite sides.”
“I’m glad you get it.”
“Yeah, I get it. So you think we won’t be together?”
“Our lives are too different. We’re never in the same place at the same time. We have different journeys to take.”
Her eyes are dull and sullen. His voice is soaked with stiff melancholy.
“You’re right that our lives are a coin, and a coin...
Just Shoot
The sun is slowly lowering, and the streets start to liven up with the dinner crowd, and people getting off work. Amber rays pierce the air and turn the world gold. Sidewalks were caterpillars and centipedes with space and time. People brush me as they pass, jostling my shoulders as if I were a ghost. I know I’m not, but it’s moments like this that you wonder if people really do see you, or if...
June 2011
2 posts
6 tags
Old Loves
Glug! Glug! Glug!
That’s what I thought I could hear in the background as she cried through the phone.
“You’re killing me, you know that?! This is your fault!”
Her words were garbled and choked with tears, barely understandable.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re killing me!”
“Stop! I’m coming over!”
After that she said ‘bye.’ I’m not sure if it actually happened, but I’d like to think she also...
7 tags
Product Placement
An old dirt road rattles the rusted bones of a pickup truck. Sun, warm and bright, shines through the windshield painting a warm glow on two faces; one ripe, one weathered. The rifles hanging behind their heads bounce and try to jump free, but are firmly secured in the gun rack.
“The big game’s coming up soon. You think you’re ready for it?”
“Sure, Pa. Coach says I’ve...
May 2011
2 posts
7 tags
Taking Work
It was 1998. There was this street artist that lived in this place I used to live. He wasn’t so much a street artist as he was an artist in the streets. He would paint sidewalks with shadows and illuminate walls with hazy dreams. He walked normal and talked normal. His clothes were normal, but in his eyes there was something.
-Why do you do this?
-Because the walls are here.
I always passed...
6 tags
Its Fullest
I look into her invigorated eyes.
“Just like Billy Pilgrim, so it goes!”
At that I jump off the bridge. Rotating with my back flat to the water I float for years. I can see the birds soaring high above, and I am with them, I feel the sun penetrate deep into unknown curves of my body. While I slowly drift away her eyes bulge as they follow me into the air. I can’t see her anymore,...
March 2011
1 post
6 tags
When Morning Comes
“I understand.”
Click. The phone hung on the wall, with one hand still tightly clenched to it. The woman holding it choked back her tears as she stood alone, motionless. Her kids would be home soon. She had to be strong. She could never show them that she was hurting. She had to be their support. She had to do all this even though all she could think...
February 2011
1 post
9 tags
Second Coming
“Listen John, Coke has offered me 50 million if I can get a shot of Him before going up, and McDonald’s is giving me 100 if I get one of Him biting into a Big Mac. Do you know what this means?! WE’RE RICH!”
Her voice echoes through the air as she screams in jubilation.
“I could care less if He’s dying, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Don’t go getting all sentimental and...
January 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Fame Fatale
“Listen, your career is coming to an end. This new single – its terrible. You’re fading from the public eye, and the future isn’t looking so good.”
She keeps her head down; eyes on the ground. Her demeanor is that of a child in the principle’s office.
“Well, what do you expect me to do? It’s not like I’m getting any offers from people to do anything. Have you heard back from Kanye...
8 tags
Business Class
“Why don’t you come in?”
I step inside. Soft music plays subtly in the background, and the air reeks of stale perfume. I can see the idea she was going for, but she overemphasized the point, and the whole situation comes off as cheesy.
“Can I offer you a drink?”
“I’ll have whatever you’re having.”
“Have a seat. Make yourself at home.”
I feel awkward. I don’t want to be here, but...
6 tags
Love
I wake up because my mouth is dry and tastes like cigarette butts. I feel that brief moment of panic as I look at my unfamiliar surroundings, remembering what happened last night; whiskey, music, friends, fights, sex. I’m scared to look over to the other side of the bed. I never should have come back here last night.
Red digits burn into my eyes when I look at the alarm clock. 6:17. I always...
December 2010
3 posts
5 tags
Bedroom Eyes
When she looked back into my eyes, that’s when I knew it was love. She had a way of showing you exactly what she was thinking with a simple glance. I was too scared to tell her the first time she gave me that look, but I knew we’d meet again
Summer 2006. She walked into the room and life erupted from her. I saw colours that I’d never seen before. Her aura was platinum blonde. I mean, she...
10 tags
Lessons in Fatherhood
“What happens after you die?”
It’s about time he’d started asking me questions like this. I’ve waited for this for a long time.
“I don’t know. Nobody knows.”
“At church they said you go to Heaven. Don’t you go to Heaven?”
“At church they say a lot of things. Do you ever question the stories they tell you at church?”
“Sometimes. I can’t understand that story about the world...
4 tags
My Muse
Her hair sits atop her head in a twisted bundle as she peers at the glowing screen of her laptop. She can’t hear me because she’s ignoring me due to my annoying habits of distraction. I feel cut-off from her as she distances herself from me. I want to scream, I’ll change, I’ll be good, as she makes me feel like an abandoned pet watching its owner drive off.
The tables have turned. Now she’s...
November 2010
3 posts
7 tags
Life at Dawn
When I came home there was a short piece about me in the local black and white. We weren’t seen as heroes, but the paper thought it would be nice to put in something about the war. I was still proud, and just happy to be alive. I never expected anything much of a welcome home because I was never sure if I would make it back. Just home was enough…
It was the longest night of my life. They had...
7 tags
Daily Lessons of an Imposter
Before walking into the amphitheatre, my heart always pounds. I have that feeling of noxious nauseous butterflies crashing into each other in my stomach which feels as though it’s stretched from my ribcage to my pelvis. My hands nearly tremble, but I keep them hidden in my pockets so no one can see. It’s only three more minutes until class begins. I watch from afar as the...
5 tags
One Chance to Err
I can’t do this. How am I supposed to get finished when I can’t start? What they’re asking of me is too much; impossible. The deadline is too unreasonable.
As a child I used to piss my pants to get attention, or to get out of situations like this, but now isn’t an option. Maybe that’s what I’ll do; piss my pants in front of the editor. If I do, I’m sure I can get the deadline...
October 2010
3 posts
8 tags
Ours a Day
If I fall asleep now I’ll have four hours before morning. That’s not bad. I can live on four hours of sleep.
I roll onto my left side. The white walls are so bright that they eerily glow in the blackness of my bedroom. Being pressed up against the cold wall feels good on my skin. My window’s open, yet I’m still sweating. The air is stuffy and feels like it’s...
8 tags
Father's Pride
He looks forward from the hot stoop. His old rocking chair creaks and cracks under his gentle motion. A warm breeze blows from the west, and causes him to look that way. Down past the sea of grass, farther than the river, even farther than the rolling hills in the distance, past a world of towns and people, the sun sinks into a tired shade of red. His eyes wander down to the backs of his dark...
7 tags
Silent Feet
“Practice, practice!”
My mother’s words get chewed up and spit out by her accent. I can’t hear it, but from the looks some people give her when she speaks I reassuringly know that it’s still there. As I sit on the bench she continues to yell at me from the other room, but this time I only hear the muffled resonations of ghosts.
I slowly lift the heavy key guard. When I...
September 2010
4 posts
10 tags
A Distant Gaze
Who am I? That doesn’t matter. I’m just a dark shadow; a pair of eyes plaguing two sweaty sensual serpents. They glide across the floor, and spiral into a finishing pose. They saunter, no, slither up to the bar.
Where am I? It makes no difference. Maybe it does: a dark hole in the underbelly of a city, a place the tourists will never find and if they did...
5 tags
Dismissed
… No, I didn’t agree with any of it. It’s a business, not an institution for education. Once I saw that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was digging into my mind, burrowing deeper and deeper. How are you supposed to focus when your mind’s unstable like that?
So what did you do?
Look at me. What do you think I did?
Gave up?
Not...
5 tags
For Your Thoughts
-So what do you think of the arts of today?
-The arts? There’s no such thing as the arts, my friend. There’s art, and that’s it. People just don’t understand what art is, that’s all. You can label anything and set some standards and anything can slip into that category, but that doesn’t make it anything.
-What do you mean?
-All I know is, when I see something beautiful, I know it. When I hear...
4 tags
To Waste
She sits down at her desk to begin her process. With her left hand she taps the handles of each drawer. She delicately aligns the various types of pens and pencils to her right. To her front rests a blank sheet of pure potential lined up perfectly with the bottom of the desk.
Crack, crack, crack, go her knuckles.
She stares at the writing utensils as though each one contains a different...
August 2010
5 posts
8 tags
The Aging Process
The old man invites me into the basement to play pool. Surprisingly, at only eleven I can shoot, but that’s what happens when you have your own table.
The lights hum and flicker as they illuminate the smooth green felt.
“Rack em.”
In all the years I’ve played with him he’s never let me break. I rack the balls, and organize them as he taught me. When they’re just right I pull the rack off,...
10 tags
Born Free
The road has twisted too many times for me to even try to imagine the direction I’m being taken. Time and distance have melted into the blackness of the thick sack over my head. My breaths are deep out of my nose because of the solid tape across my mouth. The automobile slows as gravel spits up into the wheel wells. Panic has turned to terror.
“Almost there.”
They chuckle. My guts tighten...
6 tags
Just to Say Goodbye
My mother wails a muffled moan into her cupped hands. My father sits sternly, still, stiff, rigid. My guts churn and boil as I think about what might happen now. What’s going to be next? Who’s going to speak? What can I say to make my mother stop crying? My father’s too in shock to even console her.
The moment I opened my mouth to speak regret overtook me. The small seed of remorse blossomed into...
5 tags
Men
Sweat rolls down his dark ebony face and glistens in the sun before it plunges off of his nose. His dark glasses hide his eyes.
“Check out that one,” he says to his friend as a woman slowly walks passed them on the hot sand.
“Naw man, looka the one in the red. She looks like she wants it.”
They both smile slick slimy smiles as the one in the red strolls in front of them. They both follow her...
9 tags
Last Shot
“Pizza delivery!”
I stand in the doorway wearing the clothing of teenager, or at least what I think a teenager would wear. Her glacier eyes greet me. She stands before me with her hair up, makeup done, and a sultry black negligee draped over her skin.
“I hope you didn’t forget the extra sausage,” she says.
I almost laugh. To spice things up we play these little games like children. If it...
July 2010
4 posts
6 tags
Chapters Love
Her hair hangs over her brooding eyes like the curtains before a Broadway show. I pretend to read as I watch her click, click, click away making dead beats on her keyboard.
Hi, I would say. Hi, she would reply. Then silence, and a devouring awkward heat.
She’s one of those real New York broads with a skip to her step, a skip to a rhythm that only she can hear.
People shuffle between shelves,...
10 tags
Male Bonding
“… So how was the hike?”
My brother’s voice reverberates through the phone.
“It was good. It was really nice to go with Dad. He got up the mountain pretty good.”
“He’s always been able to go pretty good. I’ve seen him go places that mountain goats would have trouble with. When he was younger he could walk straight up a brick wall.”
Through my mind race images of my father climbing to the...
5 tags
Vanity Bonds
The tile floor is slick with water. Mirrors hang in silence collecting condensation, and in the background, naked bodies shuffle in and out of clothing.
“Did you see her ass today?”
“Uh, yeah!”
“Looks like someone has been eating a few too many cookies.”
They snicker. One wipes a hand across a squeaky mirror and stares.
“I need to look good for the beach this year. I still feel fat from...
7 tags
Fashionista
The air hangs about in a stuffy haze. The fluorescent lighting irritates the eyes, but the gentle buzzing make me feel less alone. I paint my lips fire, and darken my eyes with night in the small dingy bathroom. Music reverberates through the walls and gently caresses my ears. I pull my stockings up higher, put my heels on my calloused contorted feet, expose my breasts a little more, and lift...
June 2010
9 posts
7 tags
Headline Crisis Averted
I turn on the T.V. and sink down into the couch. We got sent home from work today for some event that I paid little attention to, so I figured I should watch the news to find out about it. Anything beats flipping burgers for eight hours.
47. CNN. Tickers zoom across the bottom of the screen at a speed that is too fast for me to read. A clean cut educated white man is situated behind a desk...
5 tags
Enduring Endearing Domination
I bite my bottom lip harder with each slap I feel. I feel my teeth sink into my own flesh, but it’s nothing like the euphoric spanking I’m getting. My naked posterior is bent over her boney knee. My shame and embarrassment make me salivate.
Three. Slap!
Her firm hand strikes me. The harder it hits the more I love her, the more I adore her.
Four. Slap!
My genitals press hard against her...
7 tags
Teenagers in Love
Her room is pink and dingy, not well lit, but it doesn’t matter, it’s not what he’s focused on. She slithers up and down before him, teasing, tantalizing. He watches in a trance. His stomach tightens and blood courses the tracks of his veins. A nervous rush takes over his young eager body.
“Take it off.” He whispers.
“You first.”
Without hesitation, without grace he comically sheds his...
8 tags
Starved for Attention
The hot sun bakes his tan skin and optimism. He squints because he forgot to wear his sunglasses. The grey in his hair shows experience, and the wrinkles on his skin show a man with a life lived. His shirt glows bright white in the sun. It’s made of cheap cotton and bears the slogan “Feed the Hungry.”
“We are here today to help! So let’s not wait any longer and get started. These people need...
5 tags
Young
“I can’t do this. We can’t do this. We’re just kids. What are we supposed to do?”
The pain in his voice is subtle, but noticeable. His eyes are reddening with each word he spits out. She sits quietly on the bed. Her silence breaks.
“What do you want to do?”
“You already know what I think we should do.”
He looks down at the ground as he paces back and forth. The bedroom is littered with...
8 tags
Our Saviour
I watch myself as I leave my wife and daughter behind. Tears fill their red eyes. They stay silent and stare at me as I’m ushered into the light. Two angels carry me away with them; big strong men, beautifully draped in white. I never thought dying would be this glorious. My family looks on sullenly as I drift away from them, further, further away.
Memories relax me, but only for a...
9 tags
Celebrelite, or Making It Big
The wooden desk in the office has a shimmer of glamour to it with the radiating light from the giant windows behind it. The view is from an urban fantasy. A man sits in his large overstuffed leather chair. His hair is not quite grey, and his eyes are as fierce as ever. He’s well put together. His suit must have cost thousands, not to mention his jewellery. He has the look of a boss, a look...
6 tags
Modern Martyrs
“We need to come together! We need to unite under our beliefs and become brothers!” The fuzzy voice through the megaphone rattles.
Sceptics and believers listen as the heat of revolution hangs in the air. The energy is building. This has been too long in the making.
“We must shed these uniforms of sheep, and become the wolves we are! They believe they are God, but they are not! We must burn...
9 tags
May Cause Normality
“You want all of these?” He asks with minute disgust, or what I think is disgust.
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’ll have to make some calls. I don’t carry that much of this at once. Come back in a few hours, and I’ll see what I have by then.”
I leave. I walk out of the door without looking back. The hot sun burns my eyes before I slide my cheap gas station aviators onto my head. The dark shades hide me. ...
May 2010
8 posts
6 tags
Malpractice
Nurse! Nurse! C’mon, get it together. I need you to help me. This woman’s life is in the balance. It’s in my hands, I shout to the nurse for help.
Crimson blood soaks the blue rubber I wear on my hands. I watch closely as my fingers diligently dance with the sharp instruments cutting tissue, removing flesh, replacing flesh. The rubber gloves squeak as I work. Behind me the nurse brings...
9 tags
Gentlemen, May I Have Your Attention?
The lights are dim. The surrounding ambiance is safe, calming, and lusty. The music that resonates in the walls becomes audible, if only soft to begin with; a slow beat heavy with bass, heavy with a flowing rhythm. The soft bass drum makes my heart pump and flood the blood through my veins. The show is about to begin.
Anticipation has firmly settled itself deep in the walls of my stomach. I...
8 tags
Blind Bureaucracy
“I’m sorry sir, but you failed to fill the forms in correctly. You’re going to have to do it again.”
“C’mon. You want me to redo that? It’s a bloody novel. I’ve been waiting here for hours.”
“I understand sir, but you failed to fill the forms in correctly. Please get in that line over there to request a new set of forms. You will have to pay the ‘incompatibility’ fee to request a redo.”
“Are...