The prettier the flower The more often it gets plucked. The finest roses Have the sharpest thorns This is how bleeding leads to beauty For beauty does not come without sacrifice Does not come without pain Does not come without awe and attention. No matter how distant the admirer may be.

The prettier the flower The more often it gets plucked. The more often it slowly wilts and dies And the more, ...

The dancing of flame, the flickering lights. Housed underfoot, trapped until night. Shadows draped in infinite black, Pull to the finite, ready, attack.

For the darkness of night is a harrowing mistress, A piece of her with you at all times, trust this. Those stories and tales of people gone missing, No clues, no body, no nothing, dismissing.

To find what sits beneath your nose, Under your foot...

Always the teller but never the tale.

Once during the day he walks into the scene, foot met with a puddle followed by the form of a body.

Standing to the side cane outstretched, tripping someone into seeing the scene, into touching the blood or meeting the body. A shrill scream beckons others before police arrive.

“Homocide, victim seems to be a male in his early 30s, brown hair, blue jacket an...

Dust mingling with the fog he dashed through, jumping over a mound of rubble, the sound of bullets whizzing past his ear almost deafening him as he squatted down catching his breath.

Looking at his bloody hands and clenching them to white knuckle fists banging on broken concrete. “I-I can’t just run” he mumbled to himself “Can’t run, can’t stay, can’t hide from them. There’s so much I fucking c...

“I wanna ask her out”

“You’re an idiot.”

“So?”

“… good point”

“My plan is to go up to her, do my hip hop moves and then see if she wants to get a coffee.”

“Why not just ask her?”

“Because you need to make a spectacle of it to be noticed.”

“I think just asking will work.”

“… I want to get my nerves out by dancing before I ask.”

“Your hilarious. Fine, do it.”

Stepping away the guy took co...

Dust settled as the door was broken through, the temple laid bare in the dark, baskets untouched and cobwebs lining every corner. Stepping through felt almost as if stepping back to their time, children’s toys, eating rooms. And a mirror near the sleeping chamber.

Carvings of faces on the wall around it the mirror rippled, adjusting his pack he took out a brush and dusted the mirror lightly, cle...

Folding a newspaper one sat on the bench, alone watching the park go by. Another dressed in white sat next to one. Two sat and crossed their legs.

“Good morning”

“Good morning to you too”

“…”

“…”

The two sat in silence for a while.

“Hear about the hike in electricity cost?”

“I heard they’re putting in place new solar panels.”

“I think it’s too costly for here.” “I think it’s imported from...

Past the veil of death and decay As you lie there, wait and pray The boatman greets you hollow and cold Two coins cover your eyes, a gift to behold A river of night, a river of blood A river of lost souls stuck in mud The river lay endless, no land in sight Blink twice and try as you might Until the boatman’s gone, your feet meet ground A land unknown, a sight unbound Walk through the land of the...

“So we go in the middle of the night”

“Obviously”

“I wear my tux and you bring your inflatable dinosaur costume”

“I thought this would be stealth?”

“Alright, you bring your deflated dinosaur costume”

“I’ll inflate it as we escape”

“Wearing my _charming _tuxedo I seduce the guards and have them fainted with sheer blood pressure”

“As if, you’d be lucky if the teller didn’t press the silent al...

Flowing water is cleaner than stagnant bodies River beds lay murk, mud and rubble When rain falls, it is all kicked up Sullying the clear waters While pushing the murk downstream

Stagnant bodies turn to murky waters through rain And find their mud and rubble settle over time Though it settles where it was Being contained within itself Unchanged by the event

Flowing water is cleaner than stagnant...