She asked don’t you get lonely working here
Meaning
Working mostly by myself as a church secretary for a dying congregation in a world with an abundance of beliefs but only a spare change of faith with only the ancient dead of the church cemetery buried as deep as their stories and the fading inked leaves of weddings and baptisms
to keep me company don’t I get lonesome
I thought for a moment wo...
Laying in his arms with the late afternoon sun on their bare shoulders, Alice knew Rodolfo was a piece of garbage. Rubbing her nose on his his warm so biteable skin, Alice admitted to herself that she had known his unsuitability for years. Alice closed her eyes and turned away deeper into his pillows. His voice drifted away.
They had been off and on for about a year but steady for over the last ...
The pharmacy hummed blue white light. Nervously, Lila checked for any familiar faces. Only a listless clerk acknowledged her existence from the magazine rack by the cash registers. Lila slipped further in to her hoodie. A classical version of an old pop song played as she beelined for Aisle 8.
Towers of disposable diapers festooned with cherubic babies mocked her as she rounded the hairbrushes. ...
Tinkle, tinkle, the sound of two insignificant coins jingled in the raggedy man’s cup. Limping around the tavern’s tables, he looked from face to face. A pair of fine ladies in embroidered cloaks avoided his gaze. Scowling, the tailor at the table nearest the window secreted his pocketwatch in a hidden inner pocket with one hand and shooed the beggar away with the other. The tailor’s apprendice pr...
New house, downsizing
There’s just isn’t room
Four thick legs, four solid corners
Festooned by fork tine dings,
Cosmic Haze purple sparkle nail polish,
J A and half an M in crude scratches
Laden with Thanksgiving turkeys Easter eggs
Bits of construction paper floating on
A river of sandwiches with the crusts cut off
And one more round of happy families
New house, downsizing
There’s always room...
Bright numbered cards trembled on the tabletop. Bobby looked out of the train window. The observation car was empty except for himself and his big sister Roxie. Mom’s new husband was a railway man, but Allen didn’t do something cool like drive the trains or stoke the coal. Allen was an accountant or something boring like that. Roxie who knew nearly everything also told Bobby they don’t even throw ...
A single flip flop punctuates a runaway sentence of ashy sand
Echos of thousands of tourists
Fall silent on the tired boardwalk
Shadows of sun wet skin
Carried off on an October evening wind
Inks of tee shirt shops and pirate themed bars
Bloom across the shuttered night
Only neon candy shop rainbows
Splashing mini golf dinosaurs
In teals in pinks
Remind the out of season ocean of summer...
“Be nice Dad.”
“I am nice.”
“No, mean it Dad. Be nice. Ryan is a sensitive kid,” Ronnie leaned in and whispered into his father’s ear. “Marilyn is already nervous about letting him stay here.”
“Stop breathing on me boy. I am always nice. Ask your momma. She like me or you wouldn’t be here,” Roscoe said. “It’s not my fault your woman don’t like you.”
Roscoe laughed and then wheezed into a hack...
in the corner of my eye
Just as I turn my head
That shadow in a dark room
A familiar weight on the bed
A floorboard creaks in the night
Faraway cry when I first open the front door
In the space between expecting you to be there for me
And remembering you’re gone
That’s where you are
And I’m right here
Hand on the doorknob
still the girl who loved you...
Zigzagging cars and one spandex-clad bicyclist with an apparent death wish, West Chester Pike was a snaking traffic jam. Frowning at his wife in the passenger seat, Jeff angrily drummed the steering wheel. Tammy applied eyeliner and pretended not to notice. His knee bounced as he prayed for a break from the traffic. The light above turned green but because of cars blocking the intersection no one ...
