Poems & Other Lies

Poems & Other Lies

The Latency of Morning

The Latency of Morning

It has been snowing for a week It snowed all last night It is snowing yet. My world, confined to what I can see, is a shapeless mass of amorphous heaps. A rumpled blanket hides the ground. Everything is pale and colorless. The paper birch, branches laced with snow,...

read more
Twice Savored

Twice Savored

This story first appeared in the Lit Select anthology Love Slave: Sizzle Vol.5 March 2016 Ralph walked across the lobby to the phone, then hesitated, turned to walk away but stopped again after a few steps. Ralph was nervous. He and Clarice hadn't spoken for years....

read more
Words

Words

No matter how close you think you are to a person, there are things you can never say to them, neither truth nor fiction, not in earnest and certainly never in jest. Words can be a knife or more often, a cudgel. I knew that, but somehow chose to ignore it. I find...

read more
Mortality Waits

Mortality Waits

In the ominous gloom of predawn, behind and somewhere above the henhouse, an owl poses the question: “Who? Who, who?” Inside, the hens shuffle restlessly, murmuring their fears and discontent, unhappy to be awakened before sunup,...

read more
I Got Burned

I Got Burned

        When I look at photos of you from your youth, I laugh and say:"I got burned!"You do know I am just kidding?You were beautiful when we metand you are beautiful now.When I look at you I still see the beautiful woman I first met, all those...

read more
The Mystery

The Mystery

The clouds are gone. Bright stars wink, sprinkled across the black sky. I close my eyes to meditate, breathing, but the stars call to me. As I open my eyes a shooting star burns across the southern horizon. I give up on the breathing exercises and stare into the...

read more
26 Degrees

26 Degrees

Dawn breaks, the color of old lead; an almost invisible icy mist wafts down. I hear it rattle the dead leaves and feel its tentative caress on my face.

read more
Season To Taste

Season To Taste

Amy tells me I add way too much salt when I cook. She laughs because I never know how much horseradish is too much until after my first bite. Eyes watering, mouth afire, my nose tingling like a funny-bone tapped exactly wrong. And sometimes, I pepper my writing with...

read more