You could laugh forever but never end up happy. You could love like only a parent can and lose it all to a letter and a gun.

And then what?

There’ll be times where you’ll laugh, but you’ll catch yourself. You’ll remember what you’ve lost and you’ll feel guilty for ever having smiled. You can’t know real happiness anymore. No, never again....

Yes, even as your eyes fill with tears

Grievance washing over you like shores from a time long past

Air shaped by your throat as it heaves choppy breaths into burnt lungs

Yes, even then

The stars of the desert sky write their will upon you

And from this there can be no reprieve

Oh, if I could fade those heavens above

They have shone their violent red starlight on you far too long

Indeed, if your ...

Oh, that I could have but one night free of nightmares,

But alas, I believe my heart to have surrendered hope,

My soul to have been tainted by the shadows of despair.

For I have lost a friend.

Ever the brave soldier,

You were not afraid of the darkness.

Fitting to fate's affinity for irony,

As it is now I that endures the depths of gloom

Faced with but one truth that will outlast us all

That what...

After that night, each subsequent night was lonelier, colder. The memory haunts me still.

It was one of Zach's extravagant parties, back before he had given up on LA and it's crowd of try-hards and posers. He had this big pool in the back yard, something like you haven't ever seen. Imagine a resort in Tulum, and think bigger. Seriously, this pool had two full-service swim up bars. And people - my...

Tick tock tick tock

The benevolent clock suggests there's time for a break

Put your pencils down, all you diligent bodies

Students staring out the window in anticipation

Workers with weary eyes from computer screens

The ever generous clock says "Stop!"

Congratulations, you have made it through another day

Tick tock tick tock

Are you using your time well, young souls?

Your rest is upon you, there ...

Mangled corpses and dismembered limbs lined Main street amongst fallen confetti and tussles of tinsel. Such was the aftermath of the bombing of Buffer on their 30th Independence day, a terrorist attack that targeted the massive parade on this day of would-be celebration. Such was the view of Tyrod Jones.

Tyrod Jones was twelve years old when terrorists first struck. He had lost a sibling and a mo...

"How'd it get like that?"

"You're asking me? How should I know?"

The two brothers sat upon one of the hundreds of thousands of boulders that made up the shore line, drizzled with mist from the lapping waves rolling in to their front. They both twisted their necks and stared to their left - the focus of their attention: a deep sky blue colored residence, only half hanging on to a solid pier, whil...

It's been happening for a while now, and today I think it's finally complete.

Every morning I would awake in terror. A nightmare that I had slaughtered someone and butchered them in my shed. Just a crazy dream, I'd say. But I'd look in the mirror when I'd get up, and something would be... off. A part of my face would be replaced with someone, something, else's. My reflection yesterday revealed th...

Nala and Rohan grew up together in a small town upstate New York. They dreamed of flying. When they were six, they would pretend they were birds or dragonflies and run around the yard. When they were ten, they would act as pilots, commanding a cardboard box or a swing set as if taking off and soaring through the air. At age twelve, they would eagerly rush home and do their homework, both top stude...

There was a slight breeze that riled blue, translucent curtains into a dance, then carried on to brush gently against Marie's forehead. She welcomed it. The air smelled lightly of lavender, a synthetic scent from the detergent of the completed laundry she now folded upon her perfectly done up full-size bed. She picked up an azure colored sundress, covered in a small, white floral pattern, and bega...