She answered the phone with the soft raspy voice of a woman sleeping alone.  The light in her bedroom was off and all was dark, but the beam from the red numbers on her alarm clock gave a tinted glow across her night stand where the telephone rang.

She answered, “Hello,” with an unsure voice.
“Did I wake you,” he asked.
She cleared her throat. “What time is it?”

He informed, Continue reading →

And so the rain began to fall.
The wind moved with a sound,
as if it had a tail
that whipped passed the window.
The raindrops poured down
and crashed against the rooftop,
which sounded like a stampede
of a trillion little footsteps
hurrying down the slope of the house
to eventually meet the ground.

It is morning.
The gray clouds are like a blanket
that drapes across the sky.
I always saw this kind of day
as Heaven’s method
to soften the madness
and ease the tension
of an everyday world. Continue reading →

It was late in October.
Outside, the air smelled from fireplaces and wet leaves,
which had changed from green to colorful
and then fallen to the ground.
I could smell the oncoming months of cold weather,
but yet, I could smell the warmth of a life
that would no longer be lonely.

I knew little Continue reading →

“Don’t go,” she said.
“Stay,” she told him.
“What for,” he asked.
“There’s nothing left for us to talk about.”

Marie stood from the love seat in her small studio apartment. The lights were dim and she was dressed comfortably. The curtains were halfway opened at the only window in her apartment that hung above a small round table that sat against the wall at the edge of a little, eat-in kitchen.
There were four Continue reading →

Be advised:
The image you see in the mirror may not seem exactly as you appear.
Know what that’s called?
That’s called insecurity . . .
otherwise known as an inaccurate version of who we are.

What you look like, how you Continue reading →

At the start of eighth grade, I used to work in a small luncheonette with an old man who most people saw as miserable. His name was Irving.
He was always frustrated and his face was wrinkled.  His nose was large. His eyes were squinted and angry. His head was bald on top with gray hair on the sides.
Irving wore black-rimmed eyeglasses, which often dangled from a string that hung around his neck. He always wore Continue reading →

These are ten thoughts

1)

My yesterday left the minute you walked out of the room
. . . and I never thought about you once
except for when I found the strands of hair that you left on my pillow.

But hey,
we all have to start from someplace.

After all, if it weren’t for losing you

. . . I don’t know if I would have ever found myself.

2)

Whoever said, “One minute is Continue reading →

There are times when I need to listen to something soft. I need to find the right music and pipe it to my ears to clear my head. I take a deep breath and I exhale. Like now for example. As I write to you, I am listening to a soft instrumental.  I began with something from Jimi Hendrix.  I listened to Valleys of Neptune, to be exact.

I view music the way a connoisseur would view a fine wine. Some moods require a certain flavor. Tonight, would be a night for a deep red. I feel the need for something Continue reading →

(held down)

she smiles sometimes to defy you 
and to you
this is the worst kind of smile
because it’s like a criminal’s
which means you lost what you once stole.

am I right?

to you, her smile drops you to your knees
it rips into your heart like her sharp fingernails once did
when they tore into your back except,
those were the good old days
those were the days when she listened
and loved you Continue reading →