We exist in shells

Hard exteriors

Sometimes they are mesmerizing

Glittering and vibrant

Other times they’re ragged

Symbols of hardship and agony

Many have worn their shells for an eternity

Others are yet to get accustomed to them

For some, their shell is all they’ve ever known

It is their home

Their sanctuary

Without it they are bare

Unfamiliar with their own skin

But one can only wear...

“If only this world had shown me a little more mercy…”

The man trembled as he spoke the tearful string of words, struggling to hold himself upright as his executioners dragged him up the sodden wood pedestal towards the guillotine. The crowd encircling him started a restless chant of slurs and mockery directed at his expense, tossing rotting vegetables and whatever obscene or filthy objects they ...

**_The Sparrow_**

Leather and mahogany

A blissful dream of red wine and paint

She traverses the mind of her lover

The allure of her aroma

Drawing The Fox inward

She delivers pleasure and joys

And stands innocent

Quietly unaware

To The Fox’s true nature

**_The Raven_**

Dark-feathered and willowy

The first recipient of The Fox’s love

The bearer of the horrors he brought

With eyes of ink ...

The party was abuzz with commotion, just as I hoped it would be.

My loyal pack of socialite companions sit soundly amid the courtyard garden, coquettish giggles swimming through the balmy spring air. Their sweet, alluring perfumes and the aroma of wisteria flowers around create a heady haze of dreaminess.

All morning, I ordered the servants of Bloomsbury Hall to rapidly serve a delicious array of...

“Snap out of it,”

The clap of Sienna’s manicured hands calls me back to reality. Like miniature bells, the tips of her rings clink against one another, jagged-cut jade and silver chiming before me.

I blink, breaking out of my daze with a deft rub over my eyes. “Yeah. Right. Sorry.”

“Where is your head at?” Sienna laughs, taking a long sip from her Solo cup. She tosses a few of her jewel-woven br...

_gracie_

paramedics gathering in a halo around me

shouting

flash of red and blue

the Mercedes sedan is stained with my blood

my back against the asphalt

the sky is a new shade of blue above me

a figure looms over the clouds

it peeks at me behind the sun

death floats down towards me

gathers my bloodied body into its arms

_minho_

the bullet slices through my skull

outside my body, I watch ...

I crack a joke with the bartender

Kiss a woman

Shrug my shirt off

Clap my friend’s back

_Nothing matters_

Whiskey warm in my throat

My brain fuzzy

My smile permanent

My phone buzzing in my pocket

Perhaps my wife is texting me

_Nothing matters _

I kiss the woman’s throat

Push away the looming darkness

Take another gulp and hope

That the warmth will return

_Nothing matters _

I am indest...

War General Baria sits in deep thought in the midst of the strategy room, encircled by maps of battlegrounds scrawled in black ink and armories of greatswords and axes. Stark portraits of each general that’d come before her.

All around is the bloodied history of the Ashen Lands, beckoning at her to make a decision.

One would lead to nothing. A decision leaving two empires still at war for another...

18 hour shift and an empty stomach

She took the public bus home in a hurry

Nobody waited back home of course, but,

Perhaps if she imagined there would be

Weekends were a blur of work and sleep

She was too rough for friendship yet she longed for it

There was no time to recall past memories

Another glass of cheap whiskey washed it down

Every day was a repetitive cycle of bleakn...

She sat on her porch in a daydream

He mopped her mansion’s marble tiles

She pondered upon the past she once had

He lived for a future he could never have

She was chasing and forever craving

He knew nothing would fill his cup of satisfaction

She cried out at the cruelety of humanity

He only strove to change himself; not the world

And yet despite this

They found an odd comfo...