You run your fingers over fingers over velvet

He runs his talons through his hair

Blade under sleeve and sleeve and

The thought alone has you stifling with sweat

He takes the pot and thanks the chair

You’re bent like a low card

You dance across the house floor

A high roller

Charmer of pockets, he does more because

Now the scene shifts from floor to room to bed

And you’ll run your fingers through...

A bolt of lightning danced across the sky, setting it aglow with a purplish hue and illuminating the skyline. Of course, the skyline didn’t need much illuminating.

The small buildings stuck out like small shards of glass, swept under the rug and forgotten about until someone who’s trouble is worth something steps on it.

Near the outskirts, I could still see the dumpsters where the bussers would...

Just like every night before this, I ascended the steps as my eyes sealed.

Except, it wasn’t really like closing your eyes. It was more like when you step outside into the sun, and it takes a minute for your eyes to adjust. But suddenly you’re standing on your porch, or a bustling sidewalk, or in a field, or wherever that door normally takes you.

The door of my eyes, however, didn’t lead to any ...

Like all the others

The walls are made of a plaster

Like canvas of an oil painting

The door is guilded mahogany

And guilt once sat in the bathtub

As red stained the grey marble of the floor

What happened

Behind that door?

Thicker than a vault, yet

By design,

Just as easy

Just one door before

The room of a king

Three consecutive 7’s align

In a window

The width of a greedy gaze

As such,

None w...

Precious

Held close

What is dear

And near to you

Your heart is a lockbox

And I am just a thief

A knavish master of picks and tricks

Rich

Your son

Two conflicting interests

You chose the one

Which cannot love you back

Which can buy you most anything

The boy becomes enslaved to your empire

Shining

Desert Gem

The Glass Locust

Hotel, casino, and trap

A place to survive or

Perhaps a place to dry out...

When you keep telling yourself the same thing over and over again, do you start to believe it?

“I’m a good kid. I’m a good kid. I’m-“

The other kids watch me march up the steps made of planks that precariously jut out the side of the island above the clouds. I am on my way to the alchemy laboratory. My favourite place. They turn away after I let the door slam behind me and continue to kick their...

It sleeps in dead cold

It is a hard, unforgiving bed from which the small tufts of grass once grew

Funny how life had to start there

Now that all is dust, we bury the dead, those we all knew

Maybe there’s a large weight holding them beneath the surface

It’s colder and harder than the rest of the underground

Once the grave has been filled, there’s little hope they can be found

We forget them an...

Every night

I stare at your face

Under colored light

From a distance and the comfort of my seat

We are lovers

That never speak

But your soprano flutters

Let me know I am yours

After each tune

I applaud my hardest

For my love to you as the moon

And I am drawn back to this club

...

If only you would stop talking

But your words are an obligation

I really should get walking

You see, we've found a complication

And just over your shoulder

Someone else I spy

I'm the beholder

If beauty is in the eye

I wish not to be rude

Because you seem to take interest

Over this lovely food

But when I look across, I can't help but be impressed

I push in my chair as you take note of how brief

...

Maybe it *was* about the money this time.

But not for the reason you think. I have been diagnosed with a vascular degenerative disease. My blood vessels are slowly collapsing and cutting off blood flow to my body, starting with my tiniest capillaries until my arteries cave in and then finally, my heart will implode, but by then I will already be dead. The doctors say I have about a year before th...