This sense of being watched reminded me of the countless Zoom presentations I’d given to faceless crowds. The one-sidedness of it always made me feel a bit uneasy, a bit vulnerable. The audience’s cameras almost always off, I could see myself on the screen the way they saw me. They could probably construct an accurate narrative about me and my disposition, based on my mannerisms and body language....

A professional card player. A physics professor. A disgraced actress. A retired chef. What does this band of misfits have in common? They each traveled by air, automobile and equine to arrive at this candlelit, canvas pavillion in the middle of the desert. They’re all guests at my party.

And whose party is that, you ask? Some might call me an instigator, but they’ve got the wrong idea. I’m a fa...

It was late, probably too late for Wren to be walking through Piedmont Park. She wasn’t alone in the park, though. She could see the outline of a couple sitting together on a bench beneath the blue glare of a light post. A jogger in the distance made circles around the running track. Still, a woman shouldn’t be crossing the park alone at 10 PM, hours after the sunset closing. If something happened...

Mother Nature provides many avenues

to escape reality, or so I’ve found,

to adjust reality,

or to discover it.

She asks the traveler to pause and wait

For the life around us to come to life.

It was there all along,

But we did not notice.

The clouds are beaming, loving the audience,

swelling, compelling, enveloping me.

In billowing folds,

Such stories unfold.

There is a stray.

The community c...

Once I was the outline of your picture.

You filled it in with color and texture.

Now I’m the skillfully blended, faded edge,

hinting at dimension, noted only by

a studied eye.

Once I was the grasp around your wrist,

Squeezing tightly, leaving half-moon marks.

Now I’m the invisible imprint, still felt

only occasionally, when your hand turns

a certain way.

Once I was the leader of your band.

On ...

Jerry peeked over the towers of stacked, mismatched china that balanced precariously on top of a rickety antique shelf. In the parking lot, a shiny black Audi SUV had been idling for at least half an hour. As a matter of principal, Jerry never lifted the large metal door on the garage-turned-junk shop a minute before, nor a minute after 10 ‘o clock. Being that it was 9:57 AM, this gave Jerry a bit...

We stood in the middle of a desert, faces upturned. We were about an hour from Arequipa, and had been watching the sky cycle through shades of peachy orange, deep periwinkle, and finally to black. We asked our driver to pull over briefly, to allow us to step out and take in the scene that lay before us now. Sandy mounds stretched out into an endless expanse the color of charcoal. Moonlight illumin...

Blue light reaches through the open blinds

And through my shut eyelids,

Drawing bright shapes across the bed.

I lay still, considering my options.

There is comfort in the horizontal life,

But there is promise in daylight....

“If watching cartoons has taught me anything, its that characters never really change,” said Devin, taking a long draw on his cigarette. The butt glowed orange. He was sitting in the dark, back to the wall, long legs splayed out on the studio floor. Colorful sketches surrounded him, and he flicked a bit of ash onto a drawing of a cockatoo with black, smoldering tail feathers, a tendril of smoke fl...

As I stepped off of the train onto the platform I found myself engulfed with feelings of sheer optimism and possibility. Though I was eager to explore the city, I paused momentarily to take in my surroundings. The station was bursting with travelers. They paced toward hosts with outstretched arms and raced excitedly toward their next trains. An astonishing number of peddlers called out to me, wavi...