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…breathe deeply and often…

  • “You damned idiot, you’d be late for your wedding, if you could find a damned woman who’d put up with your shit” said Cedric. He was trying so hard to be positive. He couldn’t though. He was an old man from out the creek, Clymers Creek. Paul couldn’t pour piss out of a boot. All

    Read more

  • A Nod to Dante

    In the middle of the journey I came to a dark wood where the straight way was lost. There was no yellow brick road circling toward an emerald city, only a crooked weed lined path with scraggly trees and tumbleweeds. None of the medication I took every morning made the day go right. Harpies to

    Read more

  • *The Circle “Well done! Well done!” Will stepped into the firelight, clapping. “Which one of you has the voice of an entire choir of angels? It could blow a hole through the top of the Globe. Now I will always have your voice in my head.” Rue crossed her arms and bent her head to

    Read more

  • Real Job?

    My first real job couldn’t have been when I was a waitress or a bartender. They were menial, physical, fast, and required a lot of memory. It was fun to be fast on my feet and fast in my head and hands. Those jobs required social skills and smiles, and knowing how to handle a

    Read more

  • I heard someone say

    I yawned and my coffee kicked in. 

    Read more

  • In the Museum

    It wasn’t the wonders on the museum wall that captured my attention, although there were plenty to see. I felt a pang of shame about it too. I was properly enthralled and humbled by Picasso’s blue period, Monet’s waters, and VanGogh’s wonder year. I knew sacred ground when I was on it. The rarified air

    Read more

  • Against the Tide

    Alice felt like a deer swimming against the tide in the ocean, a riptide, not realizing imminent death, or did she? Was it a conscious or subconscious attempt at suicide? She made the mistake in anger of asking a friend, “Just how much Prozac would kill me?” The shrink was at her house in half

    Read more

  • Seventh Gate 4 Will had been plotting murder in his mind for weeks, but couldn’t for the life of him figure out how to do it. His theatre had been closed for months because of the plague and people were screaming for blood. He cursed himself. Duncan had to die, but how? He mumbled and

    Read more

  • The Race

    The Race “If I hadn’t put off everything, I wouldn’t need to do this,” said Walter to nobody. He walked on the creaky old expansion bridge that crossed the river, it would be years before it would be repaired.  Every step he took the bridge shook and sent another random thought through his brain. Sometimes

    Read more

  • Knives or Feathers

    “ ‘Whatever,’ is the wrong answer,” I said to myself, to the boys, to the cat, to the dog. Be specific in your choices. You only get to make this one once. Make it a happy one, always. Consequences come at you with knives or feathers. I much prefer feathers, the soft parts anyway. Everything

    Read more

  • The Mighty Oak

    The Mighty Oak Although it is true that it looks easy, swinging off a rope ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. It takes more engineering and logic than some people have to make it work right.    When the dirt road was eye level to the best swinging branch of the giant oak tree, Read more

  • How To Invoke A Muse

    Alicia Keyes, cool woman and soul singer, said, “You already have everything you need inside of you right now, today.”  Every ceremony begins with an invocation, a throwback to the Greeks or Romans or one of those ancient peoples who were scared of angering the gods. An invocation is an invitation to the muse to Read more

  • Lotsa Dollar Surprise

    I left the windows on the car open when it got hot in the summer. Mom and Dad always did, so I figured I better too. The car was so hot a dog would have died if I’d have left it in there, a kid would have too, open windows or not. Our parents left Read more

  • You Get What You Pay For

    He was too cheap to be a companion and not expensive enough to be a decent handyman. Read more

  • Reserve

    “Here, have some firewood,” I told Suze before Caine could get there. “We’ll make a fire so he won’t mess with it. I hate it when men think they have to fix every fire a woman starts. It’s unnecessary and downright insulting. They just don’t get it. Dad was always bad about that, and Caine Read more

  • Time to Tell the Bees

    Time to Tell the Bees “You’ve got to tell the bees,” said Luke. “When the beekeeper dies, someone has to tell the bees so they know someone else is coming. They were a part of her family, like the cat and dog. They’ll go crazy if you don’t tell them. It’s only polite.”  “Really? Your Read more

  • “You damned idiot, you’d be late for your wedding, if you could find a damned woman who’d put up with your shit” said Cedric. He was trying so hard to be positive. He couldn’t though. He was an old man from out the creek, Clymers Creek. Paul couldn’t pour piss out of a boot. All

    Read more

  • A Nod to Dante

    In the middle of the journey I came to a dark wood where the straight way was lost. There was no yellow brick road circling toward an emerald city, only a crooked weed lined path with scraggly trees and tumbleweeds. None of the medication I took every morning made the day go right. Harpies to

    Read more

  • *The Circle “Well done! Well done!” Will stepped into the firelight, clapping. “Which one of you has the voice of an entire choir of angels? It could blow a hole through the top of the Globe. Now I will always have your voice in my head.” Rue crossed her arms and bent her head to

    Read more

  • Real Job?

    My first real job couldn’t have been when I was a waitress or a bartender. They were menial, physical, fast, and required a lot of memory. It was fun to be fast on my feet and fast in my head and hands. Those jobs required social skills and smiles, and knowing how to handle a

    Read more

  • I heard someone say

    I yawned and my coffee kicked in. 

    Read more

  • In the Museum

    It wasn’t the wonders on the museum wall that captured my attention, although there were plenty to see. I felt a pang of shame about it too. I was properly enthralled and humbled by Picasso’s blue period, Monet’s waters, and VanGogh’s wonder year. I knew sacred ground when I was on it. The rarified air

    Read more

  • Against the Tide

    Alice felt like a deer swimming against the tide in the ocean, a riptide, not realizing imminent death, or did she? Was it a conscious or subconscious attempt at suicide? She made the mistake in anger of asking a friend, “Just how much Prozac would kill me?” The shrink was at her house in half

    Read more

  • Seventh Gate 4 Will had been plotting murder in his mind for weeks, but couldn’t for the life of him figure out how to do it. His theatre had been closed for months because of the plague and people were screaming for blood. He cursed himself. Duncan had to die, but how? He mumbled and

    Read more

  • The Race

    The Race “If I hadn’t put off everything, I wouldn’t need to do this,” said Walter to nobody. He walked on the creaky old expansion bridge that crossed the river, it would be years before it would be repaired.  Every step he took the bridge shook and sent another random thought through his brain. Sometimes

    Read more

  • Knives or Feathers

    “ ‘Whatever,’ is the wrong answer,” I said to myself, to the boys, to the cat, to the dog. Be specific in your choices. You only get to make this one once. Make it a happy one, always. Consequences come at you with knives or feathers. I much prefer feathers, the soft parts anyway. Everything

    Read more