Collect yourself.Leave everything elseas it is.Don another layer.Lock the door behind you.Pull up your collar.Stiffen your shoulders.Keep your head straight.Keep your eyes on the road.Don’t lose sight.Go with or against the flowdepending upon what truth you know.Protect your breath.Find something to hold onto.Don’t get swept awayby the whirlwind of today.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Before We Were Ghosts
We lived down the lane,past the lumber mill,across the old iron bridgenear the rotting churchwhere we used to gatheron Sundays to pray for our souls. This was where we spent our days,barely getting along,disenchanted with life, never satisfiedwith being part of a whole.We thought we were allso special, you know,but our roads were as lonely,empty,Continue reading “Before We Were Ghosts”
Oblivion
I saw oblivion onceon the side of the road,a shabby clapboard houselisting in the sun, its paint peelinglike flakes of dead skin.The yard was full of junk and debris,but clearly someone was living inside.Tee shirts flapped madly out on a linelike flags of surrenderwaving in the breeze.I considered this as I drove on.Where and whenContinue reading “Oblivion”
Scene From A Mall
Tonight I’m looking at a photographtaken in a shopping mall years ago;my father, my stepmother, and my two childrenlined up before the camera like captive soldiers. It occurs to me that this is the only picture I have of them all together. They are bundled up in coats and hats, almost smiling.Lit wreaths gleam inContinue reading “Scene From A Mall”
Home Baked
I remember how early the darkness came.Long noisy bus rides home from school in winter,walking in the front door at four o’clock, sometimes later –the light outside nearly gone.Inside, the house was warmand smelled of the wood stove, occasionally molassesif grandma had just baked a fresh batch.Sometimes she’d let me sample one before dinner,while theContinue reading “Home Baked”
Skylon
That day, in a glass-enclosed elevator,squeezed in like a school of fishrising 775 feet to the top of the swaying tower,a slyly grinning man explained to us how it had to do that so as not to snap apart. Everyone laughed nervously.I shuttered and covered my eyes with my hands.My mother clutched my shoulder, calmlyContinue reading “Skylon”
Three Words
Three little words spray painted on a fence.Far from the only words there, but the only one’s to catch my eye. So whoever you are, why did you do it?I just wanted to walk today without overthinking.Now I’m tangled up in that question and others. Beyond basic survival instincts, why do we get out ofContinue reading “Three Words”
Allure
I’ve always wanted to live by the ocean.I can’t quite explain it –I’m terrified of deep water. Still, I promised myself oncethat someday I would,even if only half believing. Midlife and landlocked, I’m no closer,though I’m certainly closer to death,whatever that is. Day after day I want to wake up,gaze down at a sleepy harbor,andContinue reading “Allure”
Mathematics
The word alonemakes me squirm.My eyes begin to cross.My skull throbsin time with my heart –two heavy bass drums.Flashcard memoriestorture my brain –precarious classroom moments frozenin front of a blackboard,sweaty fingers fisting the chalk, scratching, erasing, scratching, erasing.Equations I cannot solve.Numbers. Graphs.Symbols. Decimal points…Mathematics.My kryptonite. My nemesis.Cold. Glaring. Calculating,so very, very calculating,yet never adding uptoContinue reading “Mathematics”
Sharp Epiphany
Just the other day,out of a shimmering blue sky,something sharp struck me right in my third eyeand my vision suddenly cleared. I was so much older in my youth, cocksure, opinionated, stubborn as a rusty bolt –a tiresome, good-for-nothing fraud.
Storm Break
The sun splits through the black of a passing storm. The trees pour down on us while we walk,even though the rain has all but stopped.The river runs high.We stroll along beside its hyper current, her and I.She buries her nose in the wet grasswhile I study an uncertain sky,still ominous to the west,grumbling thunderousContinue reading “Storm Break”
Don’t Look Down
Sometimes I still see her out there,waist-deep in water, alone and waiting –one bright afternoon long ago.She is looking up at meon the old tire swingas I soar out high overhead,hands cupped around her eyes,wet hair glistening in the summer sun. “Don’t look down.Just close your eyes and let go!” I do as she saysContinue reading “Don’t Look Down”
Haunted Avenues 