On my pink ruffled comforter

Curved like a waning moon

Clinging to night

One more row

One more page

One more quiet moment

Scrolling versus sleeping

Stealing slivers of morning

To weave a longer night

Night after night

Aimless evenings stacked high

Casting long thin shadows

Across already gray days

Somnambulant drifting back to bed

Drained of the dreams

On my pink ruffled comforter...

It all started with old cars hidden in the woods. Just beyond a copse of scraggly trees, yards from a dirt road, there was a muddy patch. Half a dozen junked cars sat hidden in the switchgrass. Every once in a while a tow truck would drag a car away or back a car in. Jack figured it was a hiding place for a chop shop since none of the cars had all their parts. But Jack wasn’t one to ask questions....

Gentle clouds of steam rose from Todd’s World’s Okayest Dad mug. Linda was out at a quilting bee, the boys were at friends’ houses, and the farm was quiet inside and out. Glowing, the fire had settled into embers. He shooed Edison from his favorite chair with his book on World War II’s cavalry. Just as his bottom grazed his chair, a volley of knocks sounded. Sloshing himself with hot bergamot tea,...

The bite of scotch bonnet nipped at Anika’s nose. Humming, Joachim was whipping up shrimp and jollof rice in his kitchen for their special evening together. Tenderhearted, Joachim went out of his way each day to make her feel special. It was their first anniversary. She was so lucky with Joachim.

They’d met at work. She was photographing bands for a local arts website and Joachim was in productio...

“I held her hand tight, and I wasn’t ever letting go,” Riella said. “But Lillibeth pulled away.”

Shuddering, Riella was lost in her nightmare. She could still feel her dead sister’s cold fingers. She could hear the crunch of her sister’s small bones as she pulled and pulled. It was never enough. The dream always ended the same. Lillibeth’s limbs stretched impossibly long. Bending in unnatural po...

Splat

One fat raindrop

One more

Another

And another

Gray splashes

Drop by drop

Pelting

Melting

the last footsteps of winter

Winter’s end drums a half remembered song

Against the pane

As I wait for the

Tender green trickles in...

Hovering over a paper covered toilet seat, Quinn focused on peeing without touching any surface.

Bang! The ladies’ room door whacked open. Soured beer and hard rock from the dive bar flooded the restroom. Quinn stopped. She had a shy bladder.

“Like I was saying I feel sorry for her. I tried to cut her loose but I’m like her only friend. Pathetic, really. She begged to be my maid of honor, Domi...

Rank beef smells hung in the chilled air. Pale green fern fronds curled tight over the melting snow. Fleshy petals the color of drying blood glistened under the tree canopy. There was a tense quiet except for pencil scratching and the soft buzzing of flies. Opal tossed down her pencil.

“It’s a spit in the face. You know this skunk cabbage is a stinking liar. I hate tricksters. Making flies belie...

Red ripeness

held up high

to a relentless sun

I am

These fingers

Pick your fruit

Pack your meat

I am just

harvesting treasures

for a table with

no chair for my kind

I am just a machine

Waiting on you

on the corner

of needed and hated

I am just a machine to you

bending between the furrows

I dream of seed-studded rubies

growing on my own earth...

“Have you ever seen a squonk’s tears? Well, look at mine,” Harrison belted out the Steely Dan lyric.

Music waltzed around Harrison’s sunny studio. He stepped back from the nearly finished bust. With a clay covered hand, Harrison stroked his graying beard. He looked from the police artist sketch to the e-fit back to his creation. Two eyes, one nose, a mouth, a face is so much more than three dots ...