This is not a verse of rejection Here you won’t find anything averse It is just one last interjection Mere words of gratefulness And vowels and consonants of joy So many days filled with pleasure The reading and writing The lilt and slant of so many voices. Taking the time to hold a moment Of what is in another’s mind and soul A great ‘thank you’ to all who read and write In the early morning or l...

The click of claws, the stamp of hooves, the chitter-chatter of fangs filled our first night in the cabin we had rented for two weeks of relaxation.

Something which we never found on that desperate vacation to get away from it all… we did get away, but we found something else… or it found us.

We would be changed.

One thing we could definitely say - it was or they were nocturnal - we weren’t sur...

A bat lives a life most vertical, at least during the day when for them the lights go out. They hang upside down, at least that’s what humans and most of the mammals say. But for them, it is right side up - to stand upright on two feet (or four) sounds like a terrible bore to them. It most certainly gives a backache and painful pressure on the soles. Better to fly through the air, or hang in sleep...

Now there are Swiss Army knives with their flicks and clicks that bring short blades, tiny clippers, and curly corkscrews to life; there are also Assassin’s Slayer knives that also flick and click with sharp edges of daggers, spikes, garrote wire, and detachable darts. Then in the handle the last deadly method of herbal poison or animal venom held in an unbreakable flask. Like its Swiss cousin, th...

They were the last to leave. Their footsteps the last to be placed upon the dying Mother who had given birth to them all, generation after generation. All that was gone now after billions of years of time.

Their ancestors had left the surface long ago, either up and away into the beckoning stars, or the few who could not bare to abandon where they were born, where their blood line had long flowed...

It starts out quite simple With little piggies going to market Whether with fingers or toes We start with almost pure decimals Eight fingers + two thumbs Or on the feet a perfect ten We reach our first twenty With adding and subtracting Tapping the fingers on the desk Squeezing those toes in our shoes Writing what is correct on the test These digits are a comfort Such fine names as Whole or Natura...

Uncle Artie was a strange fellow, but you just had to love him anyway.

And when I say strange, that’s just what I mean, all those synonyms fit perfectly for him: unusual, odd, peculiar, weird, uncanny, and queer. Yes, that last one had a double meaning, Uncle Artie had been married to Uncle Bob for many a year, until he died.

I’ll tell you, when I was newly orphaned and sent to ol’ Uncle Artie, ...

Shadows quivered upon the wall, the tallow candle lumped in its liquid fat. One flame was all that brought uneven light to the chamber. A deep breath, in and out, to find the vision.

The quill began its scratch into the vellum and the iron-gall ink began its flow into the etched ravine:

Ye, my Brothers, had besought and bade me to wit what shall come in a five hundred years time in MMXXII anno ...

The line had been drawn - two actually - one in front of the desk - the other in my mind. One had tiny flashing neon LEDs, the others were the neurons in my brain. Both flashed: DO NOT CROSS!

I didn’t want anyone to cross my line, I had just turned sixteen and my hormones made me feel uncomfortable around anyone, except my friend Bob. And this new teacher, was a special case. She had taken Ms Hig...

An actor I am but not upon the stage I’m two-dimensional, start blank as a page But my body slowly appears in ink Black boned words that may sink in tears Bring or allay the deepest of fears

My form appears in verse, stanzas birth The who I shall be and express the why Each word carefully placed - to rhyme - or not Placed in meticulous schemes of girth To create an emotion, both truth and lies

I...