No one ever tells you how distracting battle can be. I guess it’s one of those things that you learn when it’s too late.

The scene before me blurs as I allow my mind to whirl with alternatives.

That’s right.

I wasn’t knighted for nothin’.

But I didn’t have much time to strategize before the siege began.

The threat to the king came too swiftly.

We had been aware of the impending hostility from...

Died inside an eon ago,

embraced the endless dark.

Stubbornly survived by insisting

a purpose for my prevailing spark.

Wandering fathomless galaxies,

weaving through destructive debris.

Blindly guided toward my fate

by forces much greater than me.

But too much time without,

forces one to look within.

I wish I hadn’t spent all my days

waiting on life to begin.

I wish I’d taken my one precious li...

“I’m surprised your fingers aren’t attached to your temples by now,” Mary teases in a thankfully low tone.

I look up from the papers splayed across my desk, the words there having blurred hours ago.

My attempt at a polite smile in response is unfortunately more of a grimace as I continue to insistently massage my chronic headache away.

This method has yet to work, but I always come back to it w...

Shrill shriek pierces the air,

a pointless evolutionary alarm.

‘How else to know which way to go

and escape from apparent harm?’

What if they’d just seen a spider?

Or maybe they’re only surprised?

What if they’d eyed Death’s scythe,

exclaiming right before they died?

It’s an unending vocal expulsion

with nothing constructive to say.

A cacophony, inferring to flee,

yet my feet stay rooted an...

Waking to find that guy worriedly watching from outside the bars of my cell still startles me.

I don’t want to know how much longer it would take until I’m not screaming awake, but I’m not exactly eager to find out.

He sighs like my being terrified by an actual giant, with no concept of personal space, makes me a disappointment.

Great.

I’ve achieved my goal then.

And in under a year!

I bet my...

A sudden noise, sit up in bed

Through clouds dancing ‘round my head

Await a repeat of what dragged me from sleep

There! A long low creak

Could’ve would’ve fixed the stairs

Should’ve foreseen the late night scare

But who’s out there, if not me?

It has to be just past three

‘Hello?’ I call, as if to greet

The visitor creating another creak

I do not see them here or there

I do not see them anywher...

I’m unable to discern whether the front desk employee’s face is set in a natural grimace, or if my situation truly calls for the unfaltering state of her unflattering expression.

“I can find the room,” I assure her, for maybe the fifth time, as we power walk down the hostel’s weaving hallways.

It’s been a long day, an even longer night, and I just really want to get horizontal before I begin dr...

Brace for the breeze on my cheeks,

release reluctance with a sigh.

I know you’d hate how long I’d spent

writhing in denial inside.

The front door creaks in confusion,

it’s hinges long gone unused.

A painful reminder of the past,

hurts when pressed, like a bruise.

The fresh air isn’t refreshing

if not entangled with your breath.

At least your ghost still haunts our home,

refusing to rest though...

I’ve never believed in front sleeping.

I didn’t realize I’d have to convert until my fresh back tattoo and I faced off my bed last night with a level of dread better suited for a duel at dawn.

Not unlike the famous duelers, Hamilton and Burr, I awaken with the apparent weight of the world on my shoulders.

“What the world,” I mumble into my pillow.

It’s like I’m being pressed into the bed by s...

I lightly jog in place on fuzzy sock covered feet as I whip a chilled arm through my rack of warm jackets.

“C’mon,” I encourage my favorite to appear in this depthless closet.

The word is a swirl of mist before my face, a taunting reminder of my old home’s current lack of heat.

I finally lay eyes on a tan geometric design and exclaim an, “Aha!” that any reputable scientist having experienced a ...