5 Minutes
5 minutes. That’s all they had. They had five minutes to spill every single emotion they felt about each other. Diamond tears fell from Faye’s eyes as she saw an ethereal Élise lay on the lavender grass, her emerald iris slightly hooded, and a scarlet liquid slowly pouring out of her right hip. If Faye […]
Life is Beautiful If You Love
The crisp morning draft through mywindow does not wake me, and neither does the sun’s warm kiss on my cheeks northe shrill beeping of my alarm clock. No, I wake in the morning gasping forbreath to find my cat perched directly atop my throat. Pushing him off of me—elicitinga hiss from the furry creature—I roll out of […]
Graveyard of Dreams
Here is the place where your dreams lose their luster and fall apart, scattered pieces locked away in the dark. Bright snatches of color once danced behind your eyes, but you blinked, and they were dispelled, revealing a collection of dull browns and sad grays and drooping shadows in corners. The room is dusty, dreary, […]
Baggage Claim at the Copenhagen Airport
Waiting in the baggage claim at Copenhagen Airport certainly has its benefits— the benches are fairly comfortable, if rickety, and every so often an airport worker will pass by and ask if I am alright, maybe offer me a granola bar. Of course other passengers come and go, and the track before me stops and […]
The Girl Inside the Window
Ba-bump, ba-bump. The train’s heartbeat thumps through the station, its arrival marking the noisy departure of the birds soliciting nearby. A rush of hot, musty air hits me like a truck, transcending my stuffy mask and spiraling through the tunnels of my nose. I tug at the ends of my hastily-ironed skirt, its flashy gold […]
The Changing Courtyard
SPRING She fancied herself a superhero: legs wide, elbows pointed, chin tucked as she admired her shadow. Today was tutu day and its tulle filtered the sunlight into a loud magenta ripple against the grey pathway. As her papa tugged her forward, looping a hand in the crook of her arm, her boisterous, equally pink […]
this little lifelong game
we’ve been playing this game for so long I don’t remember when it started. Khun-yahy’s brown eyes, the same brown as the ink lifting from those glossy pages, pervasive and factual and condemning my body but the same brown that was consoling my body my body hunched over the dirt next to her, the water from the […]
Gazing Into Oblivion
Resigned to the saccharine recesses of my memory, I sigh. It has been 68 years, yet it all remains so tangible. My youth; where everything was known, but nothing understood. That was where I found her. Now, with my face ornate with wrinkles, hair gray, bones so feeble and unwilling so as to suggest straw, […]
His Favorite Color is Red
I am running, as fast as my legs will take me. Bare footed against the cool marble, dress scrunched up into my hands. The palace is dimly lit, but we are still visible in the shadows. His scent intoxicates me. All that’s left is him and I, alone. All that can be heard is our footsteps, […]
Bread and Circuses
My window flickers off and on Subtle pixels of iridescent light Twisting and contorting I sway in their plight To escape the tangled web of enigma That bleeds streams of opaque honey We souls were forbidden to taste Our conscience knows this is not the way So it prays to God for an hour of […]
Box Chair
A rectangular prism, twenty two feet in length, six feet in width, and seven feet in height with no practical entrance or exit. A box, save for a cutout, foot by foot square at the very front with a perfectly fit, inch thick piece of glass shoved into place. Rays come in at an angle, […]
Mujer del Mar
In this corner of the world, the legends that kept children awake during humid nights were true; and people who saw spirits were not crazy. We had a villa just by the beach, where the mosquitoes met once dawn came and the sun greeted us through our windows to let us know that God had […]
My Picture Framed World
Outside my bedroom window, I see green and yellow and brick. I see the cool breeze’s slight rustle in the branches. I see the morning light slowly illuminating the night’s restlessness. I see peace in a way that can only serve as reassurance and hearth; never calm. I see my childhood park where I had […]
Remnants of a Window and a Love Long Gone
Bang. Bang. Bang. The wood around our window is splintering. My hand is starting to hurt from holding my hammer too long. I still need to develop some callouses if I want to finish this project. I don’t think my knuckles are supposed to be white all the time either. But if I loosen my […]
Always Me
Primary School During primary school, I had always fit in with the girls. I liked the color pink. And I even liked dressing in my mother’s clothes. But the boys at my school picked on others who acted “feminine”. At the time, I knew I had a different lower half than the friends I hung […]
Head in the Stars
The window that sits on the top floor, in a girl’s room filled with her things, grants her a minute to escape, from the indoors of her house. It is not the abandoned school, or the houses behind hers, nor the constant cars passing in the street, or the view of downtown. It is not […]
Longing
my longing gaze out the speck of light in this vacuum faces obscured a blanket of despair draped snugly on their shoulders reflections stare back as the white dust flutters down in an endless storm cherry blossoms will bloom at the end of the raging snowstorm but for now the endless winter stares back at […]
my view of the World is tainted
my view of the World is tainted scratched dusty my window very badly needs to be cleaned. it craves the touch of a new cloth to wipe its grime away a fresh slate of vision when our windows are dirty we complain about not being able to see outside but that is not all we […]
Nobody Will Notice That I Can’t Keep Breathing Underwater
She’s smiling, isn’t she? She’s grinning infectiously, just like always, as she walks through the hallway. But when nobody seems to be looking, she drops the mask. Only for a second, she thinks. Just a tiny slip-up, she allows herself. The shoulders droop and the smile melts off and the eyes… the eyes stop twinkling, […]
MASK
You rise to a beautiful day Healed, tears put away Alyric, a smell, a taste Awakensthe gaping hole inside andthen Theturbulent river begins to roar andthen Theweeping wound is ripped raw Exposingthe bloody scab, an ugly unrelenting scar Rum,Whiskey, Wine Spiritjuice for the grief betteror worse Morphine,Valium, Vicodin Spiritpoppers, happy yet dead inside betteror worse […]
