Who do I think I am?

Putting pencil to paper

Who am I to make muted blue shadows

On early peaches

Curious green pastel on my pants

A bright ghost of a less than successful life study

Doubts perch on my canvas

Like heckling crows

A warm orange stroke laughs back...

the scritch-scratch of Langdon’s pen on his a notebook, the soft murmur of the CSI techs, and an endless river of sound washing over them all from the rumble of trucks and cars on I-95, Hen soaked it all in suddenly feeling suddenly so tired her knees swayed amidst the gore. The cloying perfume of hundreds of rose petals clawed at her throat. She wanted to close her eyes and fall back into bed. Bu...

He fell. It all happened so fast. D’Anton stayed over with TJ. It was fine. I mean like toddler fine. We couldn’t, you know. TJ is two or something and he is always touching, crying and stuff. I got no sleep. Like none. D’Anton went out for breakfast. I was sleeping not sleep sleeping but I was laying on the sofa. I got the baby dressed. he was playing and stuff, climbing a chair.

He fell. How’s...

“Dave’s that a balloon in my crack or are you just glad to see me,” I asked.

“Sorry, Shahryar,” Dave said shifting his Mylar Happy 1st Birthday balloons.

Laser-focused on a distant stand of birches, Jack gave us an angry shush. I rolled my eyes. They could barely make out the chalk white trunks in the dark morning. Crouching, Gerry fidgeted trying to find a position where his knees hurt less. ...

A lie is a minute

A stranger on the up elevator

An half remark overhead in a restaurant

Lying is the bright salty caper in the salad of life

I’m not saying what is truth no

I’m saying conversations are constructs

Mercurial memories slipping sliding shifting

Why get stuck on splinters instead of admiring the forest that’s all I’m saying

Nodding politely in shoes that pinch

For a face that do...

Feet pounding, Jonah cut across their backyard with his daughter clutched tight in his arms. Jochebed, quiet and stiff, squirmed against his chest. He stumbled and crashed down onto one knee. His hold loosened and his girl hit the grassy strip between the townhouses and the apartment buildings.

Grabbing greedy breaths, Jonah felt as if his lungs were aflame. Like a discarded china doll, his seve...

Hey Cowgirl it was so crazy running into you the other day

Wild right! You lookin good Skeeter. Good to see your head out of the toilet

Yeah, I still can’t stand the smell of Jagermeister. Hey your fam still up by Silver Lake?

Umm I guess they are close if forty-five minutes away is close. Whassup?

Bra I gotta great deal for you. You know Tiff and I have a house on the lake. Gorge absolutely g...

“‘Everybody knows Melvin wouldn’t hurt a fly,’ that is what everyone I interviewed said but how does that square with these violent charges, Melvin?”

“I don’t know what to say, ma’am,” Melvin said, studying his Payless shoes and worrying a ballpoint pen.

The interview drifted into silence. Looking from her subject to his wife, reporter Joy Dickens saw her once in a lifetime interview with a po...

Hydroquinone cream, drugstore shelf staple

bought with my own money

promising light skin beauty

to a brown -kinned young girl’s face

Fade cream, between acne toners and wrinkle creams

lightening repackaged as brightening

Scutinizing my face in my three-way mirror

new and improved, now with cocoa butter

Who is this old woman in the looking glass?

melasma and age spots; freckles and crow’s feet,

...

“Yum, yum, tum tum! Try Blitz BunBun!”

Savory with floral undertones, an enhanced 3-D image of a bunbun sandwich spewed down a shimmering pink mist onto Kan’s head. Irritated, they waved the advert away. Their stomach groaned in protest, but Kan walked on. The lead scientist had sent their luggage home from the spaceport by autoshuttle. They’d exited the shuttle a few blocks from home for fresh a...