He said, "Stop running. Turn and embrace the tiger."

q

It was August when I met her, and it is August now. All the ups and downs between, I can hardly tell apart in memories that come back when I'm driving the streets of Harford, the meter clicking, strangers in the back seat.

Meeting her at that moment was the worst choice I made all year. I was looking so hard for things I thought I needed, I stared ( Read more... )

At 5:30 pm I am dragging the drum kit from the van, across the parking lot to the loading door, and someday we will have a crew to do this for us. The sun seems to rest heavily at this time of day in Alabama, shining a sultry plan to end the day, stirring memories of kiddie baseball league. The sun's heavy warmth is a strong pull; the shade's no ( Read more... )

she sat in the only empty place, which happened to be one meter to his right ( Read more... )

The first thing is: a once-correct board displaying price of gas per gallon in white on red, with numbers that bend to fit. or did once. sideways now in the shallow end of the lake. stuck in 1997, at $2.14, unleaded.
 i see this from the window of the train; the first odd thing.

across the aisle, a 2 or 3-month old has been screaming for ( Read more... )

That's my granddaughter, I have one granddaughter. I say to her, Jessica, you know how much I love you?
     "Yeah, I know. The whole universe."
And how deep?
    "Infinite."
 Alright.
    "I know, grampy."
And I keep telling her that twice a day.

I'm not writing well, but I am writing often. It's something.

I get more done before noon than my neighbors get done in a whole week, Eve thought to herself, walking up the block towards her building on the cracked, root-ruptured sidewalk. Joe was already sitting on the front steps when she got there. He could see her walking slowly for over 5 ( Read more... )

I didn't feel you at first today, and I got scared that you were gone. For the first half hour at least, maybe more: nothing. I played things I thought you'd like, but you definitely weren't there. Then I played some I knew you wouldn't like. I didn't like them either. And my voice sounded old and bad, unused and my hands bored me. Same old pattern ( Read more... )

Sara had never understood about the sea. She never spent entire childhood summers at the beach or sat on a blanket with a boy while the setting sun turned the surface of the water pink. She couldn't master the art of riding waves in without scraping her stomach on the sand.  She has never once woken up with the sound of the surf in her ears.

She ( Read more... )