To be honest, I never saw cops as men or women. I saw them as men or women in a uniform. I saw them as a badge and a badge number. The cops stood on one side of the law and I stood on the other. It was me against them. I never considered they were once someone’s child. I never considered the fact that policemen (or police women) have families, or children of their own. I never saw cops as human. I saw them as enemies because in truth, I was an enemy.

In my small town hustles and while trying with the best of my ability to scheme or connive, I saw the police as obstacles. They stood between me and my goal. Whether my Continue reading →

1)

Whether I’m lost or not is irrelevant.
I’m here, aren’t I?
I’m at where I’m at and like it or not,
the surroundings are perfect
it just depends on how I look at them.

Like I said,
whether I know which way to go or not
doesn’t matter
I’m Continue reading →

It was the end of a long day at work. I had just spent several hours repairing, moving, and replacing several old cast-iron radiators on a vacant floor in a building above Grand Central Station. My knees hurt from kneeling. My lower back hurt from lifting and my shoulders were sore from swinging pipe-wrenches.
The main struggle with this job is the old pipework. Many of the valves I had to change were original installs, which meant the valves were locked tightly in place back in 1927, and they have not been disturbed since.
Some were swapped out throughout the years, and some were easier to remove than others. Most, however, are what we called “Squeakers.”
We called them this because of the loud, whinny squeak that echoed in the demolished empty Continue reading →

The morning was no different from any other during my lazy teenage days of summer. The sun was awake and high by the time I left my home. Outside, the winds were slow and warm. There was little to do in my small town. There were few places to go and only a few ways for me to get there.
There were no classrooms to attend or teachers to contend with. There were no homework assignments, no detention, trips to the principal’s office, or progress reports to worry about in the mail. There was little else besides the idled time of teenage life.

There had been an Continue reading →

Saul Williams once wrote, “Only believers in death will die.”
I had to think about this . . .

If it were up to us, our loved ones would never pass. No one would ever become sick, or suffer a minute of sadness or pain. If it were up to us, we would always remain friends. No one would ever leave, and if they did, nobody would ever part on bad terms.
Unfortunately, it is not up to us.

We were young once. We ran Continue reading →

My choice to remain as I am, or sober, comes with the occasional reminders as if to say, “Just so you know, it’s still the same out there.”
I rarely look at myself and think of me as sober. After nearly 25 years, this has become a part of who I am. Sobriety is part of my behavior. However, the understanding of why I stay sober remains, and should I choose to slip backwards—there would be a certain failure, and it is that certainty that keeps me as I am — sober.

The other day, I walked through the isles in one of the nearby drugstores. I stopped at the end section to notice a new product. It was non-alcoholic wine. It was white wine to be exact. I have never seen this before. I have seen non-alcoholic beer, but not wine.

In all honesty, my experiences with wine never Continue reading →

The best part is the wild part.
This is when you dance on the edge of being caught, or you do something forbidden because it feels good. This is the part that makes your hearts thump when you see each other.
It is the reason why she followed you into the back room where no one else goes, but the possibility of someone rushing in and opening the door at any minute stirs you both into the excess of each other’s flesh.

This is why your kiss rolls her eyes into the back of her head and her body falls limp into your arms. This is why she submits to you, and this why you cannot think of anything else but Continue reading →

It was long ago. The autumn had come and changed the appearance of my town. The leaves had yet to fall, but their green skin had changed into different variations of yellow and orange. The weather was no longer warm, but cool, as if it were in between the perfect climax before falling too far in the other direction.

My street was busy. Then again, it was always busy.  The traffic on Merrick Avenue was constant; however, it was more congested during the morning and evening rush hours. Cars ran from west to east down Glenn Curtis Boulevard to avoid the extra lights and delays on Hempstead Turnpike. Glenn Curtis was a mainroad shortcut between Continue reading →

The world I live in was meant for me. All of it was meant for me—and by all I mean ever sliver and crack.
I lived, I tell you.
I may have lived differently from others, but the details of my past are the salt and pepper that seasoned my life and led me to where I am now.

I once lived in the basement of a white, ranch-styled house, with black shutters on the windows, a small driveway, one-car garage, and brick steps that led up to a covered patio, with green imitation grass, and a welcome matt that sat beneath the front door.
I lived on a quiet street between two Continue reading →

There was an advertisement poster on the train for Disney bracelets. The bracelet is a series of different charms to be strung around the wrist and custom-made. One of the silvery heart-like charms had the words, “Be Magical” engraved with a tiny Mickey Mouse emblem and diamond-like chips sparkled in its background.

This is what I remember about Disney:

Little girl looked up at the stage to watch the lights beam while the curtain opened and her eyes sort of glistened in the reflection of the greatest show on earth.
She stared in complete amazement—watching magic perform in front of Continue reading →