Death of a Hero

“The river, the trees, all things living in nature – offer me your fighting spirit. I ask of you – PLEASE!” The tired warrior Goku raises his arms in desperation into the alien sky. He thinks of the blue skies of his home and pleads with its people. A man sits alone at his dining […]

Date Night

“WELCOME TO MACS BIG BOY DINER” The loud enthusiastic voice boomed for the one-hundredth and seventeenth time today. He looked up at the statue, an abnormally masculine replica of twelve year old holding a giant metal and plastic cheeseburger, with lettuce, tomato, and chipped paint, his two mammoth hands constantly lifting the triple paddied delight […]

Ennui

“Have a good day, honey, I love you!” Vanessa kissed him goodbye as she ran out the door, her shoes barely on, her hair a mess, her mind on the next eight hours of her day. Starbucks drive-through at 9. Meeting at 9:35. Catch up on work from 10 to 12. Lunch at Ciabata’s from […]

The Line

“FIRE!” Five shots rang out across the horizon and the man coughed a vicious spat of blood onto the dusty ground and slumped over, dead. “NEXT!” The look in Amir’s eyes was penetrating. Nothing in the sixty-five years of his life had prepared him for the moment that came before him now. He wanted to […]

Vincent

Black wings beat down on the golden ground. The beasts of the sky are sometimes seen as ominous, tortured figures. Ravens. Crows. Harbingers of impending death. Vincent never thought of them that way. Misunderstood, to be sure, but not the embodiment of evil popularized in literature. In fact, they had become his friends. As he […]

Compensation

Do the work Run the race Go home and shower Wash your face Put it on Your new soul Drive to work Dive in the hole Dig yourself out Punch the clock Drive back home to fall asleep by nine o’clock Everyday same platitudes “Thank you for all that you do” Why not thank with […]

Dreams

She used to remember her dreams Vivid painterly worlds Blue green and grand Wind swept plains Blue ocean sky She awakes to the dark now She stays in the dark Dreams evaporate like water On the hot gray highway Of her reality

Purgatorio

She holds the door open with her probably steel-tipped combat boots connected to ripped black tattered stockings adjacent to faded jean shorts and studded black belt just south of a white tank top, olive green combat jacket with rolled up sleeves exposing other sleeved skin of colored flowers and symbols and he doesn’t know what […]

My Drug Buddy

It was late and the wife and cat were fast asleep. As is customary for self-diagnosed insomniacs, I began the time-honored tradition of random Facebook searching. Jessie is married, Amanda is on her third kid, Emily doesn’t exist? Probably blocked. That’s okay, she pretty much sucked anyway. Just about everyone holds in their hands a […]

Final Transmission

I can feel them all over me now. Hands grasp, pulling me apart at the inches; beaten and bloody stubs with bent back fingernails. They claw, scrape, dig, pull, tear, wrench, throttle, maim me. I can feel their pain as they do it, souls wailing out – they want my destruction. They scream like animals […]