‘I never worry’, she says with conviction. Her voice so strong and sure while her body is frail and weak. She smiles her beautiful smile as we light the candles on the cake. We sit her up in her hospital bed, she takes a big breath but she doesn’t exhale. Then, slowly she releases the air from her lungs with a sigh and says ‘remember what I said, I never worry’.

Gently she falls back onto her pi...

Deep sigh.

What is wrong,

What have I done?

Done to myself,

Done to my life,

I’m done.

I should’ve lived when I had the chance.

When I wasn’t so old I couldn’t stand.

When I had eyes to see the world

And a mind to take it in.

Should’ve reached forward and called for help,

Before my soul was spread so thin.

I should’ve run and leapt,

Never letting myself fall

cause even if i did,

I’d still soa...

“No comment,” the girl says in a wobbly voice, flashes illuminating her tear-stained cheeks. As she pushes through clamouring reporters and fans, cameras follow closely behind, accompanied with the babble of paparazzi questions.

“Who are you visiting today?”

“When was the last time you spoke to Zachary Carter?”

“Has your recent role in Black Emeralds affected your mental health?”

“When is Mack...

He had been living without her now for 23 years, and everyone wondered how. He still demanded that we set her a place at the dinner table, even sometimes serving her a small portion and spooning it delicately into the air. He never let us give away her clothes, or throw away her expired makeup, or even fix the crooked family photo that she had hung when they bought the house so long ago. He spoke ...

Maureen Hopkins had outlived most of her family. Her parents, her siblings, aunts, uncles, first cousins, and many of her second cousins. Sadly, even two of her three children.

Today was Maureen’s 100th birthday. Her only living daughter, Elizabeth, was accompanied by her two children and their children. Maureen’s other grandchildren made the drive as well, with their children and their children’...

Based off a true story

Staring my grandfather in the eyes. looking at his face, well the half that wasn’t paralyzed. My grandfather mutters something under the short amount of breath that was left. Everyone looked over, wondering what he needed this time. My mother held his hand right, supporting him through wording it together.

“Ice cream sandwich” was what he said. Ice cream san...

Is heaven real?

Mica Anderson had asked that question a million times throughout his life. When his parents died, he asked. When his dog died, he asked. When his wife died, he asked. He asked in between those times and all through out the hours of the night. He asked and asked and got no response from the supposed God who is supposed to live in heaven. Now more than ever Mica needs an answer to t...

Crack! The trailer door flew back. Ebony uncoiled from her roundhouse kick stance and gave her father a withering look. Curtis was still staring down at his mother’s key in his hand. The key didn’t fit his mother’s door. Had Momma changed the lock on me, he thought.

Things had been bad between them for the last six months. His mother, Mabel Augusta Carter Goldstein Rivera, was the meanest woman ...

There she sat in the living room, on her beige and green rocking chair. My lovely mother whose lived until 99 years old and counting. My lovely mother who gave birth to my eldest sister when she was 18 and raised her alone at her aunt’s house because her mom nor the father of her child wanted to except her and her baby. My mom who graduated high school at 19 and graduated college at 25 with her ma...

"I gotta be honest...I never thought you'd look like the cartoons." It was the first thing I could manage as I sat at my coffee table opposite Death. I couldn't help but stare into the dark hollows of his eye sockets.

His skeletal jaw curved into a smile, one that wasn't sinister or evil, but inviting...almost playful. "You'd be surprised at how many people say that to me upon seeing me."

I resp...