Everything was calm. Too calm perhaps. A creeping sense of unease. Building to a crescendo as your hand fell sharply on the brass knocker. BANG! BANG! BANG! A sound that reverberated through the crisp leaves and stout mortar.

Bumpa dumpa da. Bumpa dumpa da. Clumsy feet rushed towards the door. You could only assume that is what was happening. After all you could only see severe black paint stari...

Everyone in the castle was running from room to room dusting, sweeping, and mopping. It was reported that King Leon and his procession was spotted near the capitol and the castle staff knew they did not have much time left. Lines were replaced on bedding and the black drapes were removed from the windows. Down in the kitchen cooks began prepping the ingredients needed for this evening’s meal. Some...

There you are,

By the lemon tree

Ever still,

The garden moves,

Too many thoughts

Drying the grass

Where your prints

Followed me to

The alley

Slowly

And you demanded Affection

I’d roll my eyes

What a brat

How nice it was...

I see many people walk by. Working people, students and old people. It’s funny how, when I became a permanent resident of cardboard fortress on a disused couch that I somehow became an unspeakable and invisible topic. I would see all sorts of people using the alleyway of which my home sits to do all sorts of things. This one time, a drunken couple were making out after the clubs had closed and the...

Turns out when a homeless man approaches you on the street and asks what you want, the answer “surprise me” will end up with him gifting you a jumbo Sharpie marker.

I turned the giant marker over and over in my hands as I continued down the street. Why did he even need this? Well, obviously he didn’t if he decided to give it away. Why did I need it? I didn’t.

I was about to chuck it in the tra...

Her pen is moving across the page. Her penmanship is flawless and her words flow freely. She bites her lip, reading over the essay in her head. “It has to be perfect,” she thinks to herself. “I have to get into Stanford, just like mom and dad.” She couldn’t bear being a disappointment to them. She’s fought her way to the top, and she’s going to stay there.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a...

"Start.” Miss Becker, at the front of the classroom, shouts to us all. Her glasses fall down her pointed nose but she quickly pushes them back to sit up right.

I look down at the jumbled words on the clear, white paper. My mind is already frazzled and I haven’t even started to try to work out the impossible questions and analogies.

I shift my legs to get more comfortable on the unstable chair. My ...

After the earthquake, after the fire that followed, life became a matter of survival. So many had died, so much had been destroyed, that survival of the fittest became more than just a cliche. It became our life.

Peter and I were a couple of the lucky ones. The destruction and death was so random, and while we lost family and friends we were still standing when the chaos settled down. There w...

I used to have a coworker from Japan

Who’d walk into the office with a mask

How quaint and funny, we’d gossip

Why does she use that, we would ask.

No winter would ever go by

That she didn’t use that accessory

She wanted protection from germs

And we’d say, how exaggerated our Kaori.

Well, look at all of us now

Masked every time we go out

And this object we thought was odd

Is something we can’t be...

It was astounding that this man could make her feel decades younger. Even the way he’d casually grabbed her hand as they began their walk made her blush like a schoolgirl. The evening came complete with a riotous group of butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach a few hours ago.

“I’m glad you liked the restaurant,” Mark said as they strolled through the park, “I know Thai food is a...