Kao's Page

Anyone watching would have thought they'd been together forever. The illusion was written plainly in the easy way they leaned into each other, obvious in the knot of their clasped hands and the rhythm of their stride. One could almost hear the heady drums they marched to from the dance of their swinging hips to the song of their smiling lips. They made an unconquerable pair, belonging together in all ancient truth. Because if he was the empty sky then she was the spread of stars, layered from be… Continue

My gal Mississippi is an observant old biddy.

She's patient while we drive her around the city for hours, looking for a lightless street to park on and watches as we finally climb into her backseat and curl up around each other as if it were the most natural thing in the world for two friends to do. The old girl doesn't miss a beat; she even catches the quiet moment when you reach for my hand and kiss my hair. She hears when I fumble my words as I tell you that I like you ("as in like li… Continue

I watch him run to the car, grinning pearly white from ear to ear. He can barely contain himself as he slides into the passenger seat.

"How does it feel, buddy? Slippery, I bet," I say as he belts himself in.

He pops off something pink from the roof of his mouth, holds it up proudly and introduces, "This is my retainer. It holds all of my teeth in."

June wanes and I burn hot for a new month. I count down the ways to push her to her last week, willing her to leave, waiting to just open the windows and let in sweltering July with her caramel tan and her water-beaded pints of beer. June sits, her eyes on me, forever judging and critical and she asks, "Will you be coming with me to my mother's this Sunday?" I watch as she wilts when I tell her no. I ask, "What's wrong, honey? Should I open the window?"

We were never very good at talking, that much was established early on. There was no art of conversation serving to bridge the distance between us, nothing to cause us to actually like the other. Words never got in our way or caused us to stop and reconsider wanting to do what we wanted to do to each other. Our ineptitude proved to be a convenience; had we been good at talking, we wouldn't have become as good at what we did as we did.

So now that I love all the music you make and I read all the… Continue