A third day away. Although the rain would continue throughout, I aligned my exodus from the city and arrival onto the trails with the incoming storms. I was only alone in corporeal existence and, even then, I felt the presence of another. Apparitions and spirits of former lives wandered among the trees. Other selves and their hopes were in a ( Read more... )

I have conversations with those who will replace me. I'm not any more or less truthful than before, the only difference is that I have no airs to maintain. No facade of title. Even though I don't step down for a month, I'm already disarmed and defanged and disentangled. A broken brain conveying information for the benefit of those who will ( Read more... )

A night in which striking a match brings poetic meaning. A night in which I realize that poetic meaning itself has been lost for so long. For years. Four years ( Read more... )

"Down there," I nodded toward the sunset, in the direction of the bar where we've spent the majority of our friendship over the last few years, "it doesn't feel like I'm a boss, really. It feels more like I'm simply the person who makes decisions. I'm more like a ( Read more... )

My first day back. After a short (48-hour) reprieve home, all the relaxation and calm was erased within seconds.

I should have known this would happen. I should have known by the metal dripping out from underneath the door to the backroom of work. During my brief absence, all the metal shards had collected and compressed and melted and pooled ( Read more... )

Hazy mind, hazy words. Heavy metal movement. The nightly view zooms out, and a minuscule amount of time reverberates for years, both in the past and the future.


( Read more... )

The mountains were still there. The pharmacy less mystical, more mundane, but still a welcome site. Driving to the rural to survive the urban is nothing new but this time, the injection of preservation was literal ( Read more... )

A second session of physical therapy. Words ricocheted off my cotton mind. What was I doing, again? Which exercise am I doing first? Was the therapist showing me what I should do now or next or never? What good are the sessions if I'm unaware?

How quickly life transformed from retire-and-chilled to can't-keep-up. Working 8-, 10-, and 15- ( Read more... )

Inside, the pent-up powerhouse. A morning's frenzy of domestic tasks. The movements can't shave off the layers of reskinned energy. Traces of my most recent self are marked by slight trails of blood; a gashed knuckle. A chopped existence. A surgically-induced strut ( Read more... )

I had just enough time after work. Just enough courage to go to the outdoor bar. But I turn away and put a glove on the hand bleeding through a bandage. Don't want to become any more eccentric to those nearby. It was merely a knick of the knuckle, one that slowly spills out my insides. Or maybe it wouldn't matter. Or maybe it would become the ( Read more... )