We are weak, we are inferior, and we cannot compete--why!

As teenagers we hated to get out of bed, were allowed to complain about everything, had grades that were not bad for having parents that were lost, sometimes lazy, and did not accomplish us. We now have children of our own that are weak, inferior, and will not be able to compete because?  We slog through mornings, sleep late on Sundays, and have no enriching activities that exercise our bodies, minds, and win us…

that you have to make peace with the past and move in a forwardish direction.

that I have control only over myself and that I must let everyone and everything around me "be".  

to be very careful of what I say and how I say it-- be factual, be clear, and keep the volume down!  

that I (finally) don't care what people think about my hair or clothes "style" or lack thereof, what I drive, what I listen to, or anything else that makes me Me.…

we're riding the rails with johnny cash today, a special recorded for tv long ago. baritone, wearing black and dust happy to show us the moment the golden spike brought east to west. i'm watching the man grin like a little kid--hollering for history, he was, and his enthusiasm was sincere.  then he cradled his guitar, strummed and learned us the chant of the section men.

my son stops drawing and stares intensely at the screen watching the section men heave and haul in unison, the gang…

1. 2. I have a tattoo of a pentagram in the small of my back.

3. I have loved the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden since 1983.

4. I almost joined the Marines, but when I met Mike everything changed.

5. I started making out with boys in the 5th grade -- I still remember his name.

6. I had two poems published in an indie mag overseas.

Elroy, the newly-banned penguin from the south, sat in McSorley's Old Ale House absently stirring his drink and sighing mightily. He was the only patron at that time of day, so his sighing disturbed no one but the lass behind the bar wiping glasses. SoCo and lime quickly became Elroy's comfort food; the sour yet salty drink reminded him of his hometown cuisine. Crunching the last ice cube, he pushed the empty glass toward the bartender but didn't signal for another. His head was buzzing and…

i have no far-seeing six to entertain you with. some kind of interesting little ditty or splashy prose thingy that might make you go "hmm."  oh, but i've got delirium. the cabin fever kind--the kind that comes when you're snowblind and pining for crab grass and soggy armpits and tank tops that don't fit.

i dreamed of emperor penguins, elroy in particular, who was banned from his clan because he complained one too many times about the snow and begged his  fellow penguins for…

It started with Christmas, preparing my home so the family could visit and not feel they were spending the evening with Trailer Park Tess. Turns out, I came down with a bad case of Nesting Instinct, feeling like something is on the way--not sure what--but something's coming down the lane and I'd better be ready. So I've been getting ready one room at a time, cleaning out closets and my bedroom, my office, heaving things out the door that no longer have a place in my life (holy crap did I…

On the darkest, coldest night of the year Winter lies dreaming long.  Winter, swaying on crystal tree tops, dreams of finding another Winter, touching fingertips, clasping wrists and flying to frozen waterfalls and gliding down still streams. They spin together across frozen ponds in the middle of cities and paint window panes white with frozen tongues. They come to rest on Manhattan's bridge cables that stiffen in their presence, the lights dim in the fierce cold but persevere, and they…

teena-beana types love letters to god on her mom's machine, tiny pink fingernails getting stuck between the keys which makes her wince, but she gets better with every letter.

teena-ballerina doesn't type poetry yet because she isn't sad and doesn't know her best work will flood empty journals at midnight, by candlelight, drunk on tears.

krissy-teen's got no mind for ambiguity, clarity, or authenticity but that's all right. her aunt kept copies of everything…

Ron Newsome's eyes opened in the sleeping dark of his gated home knowing that some angel of wisdom had just bestowed him with the solution to the world's ills, and he wrestled with the thought of jumping out of bed to write it all down or wake up his wife instead to tell her the good news, but he feared his new wisdom would be stolen or worse--laughed at. But none of that would stop him from forging his way into the corporate war room where they have their weekly pep chats so he could bestow…

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the…

Shellie nudged her sleeping grandma who was resting in the spare room of her very own home, and grandma blinked her eyes open and smiled gently at the little girl who disturbed her rest. 

"Grandma, it's Christmas morning and you told me to come here and look out the window with you so I'm here."

Grandma reached out to Shellie and guided her to sit on the side of the bed where they both could look out the window. "I promised you a gift, Shellie, and I hope you…

Sitting in the office drinking cold coffee, watching the ground snow turn gray from white in the fading daylight, thinking that I want my King and eat it too. (whatthehellsthatsupposedtomean?)

Well you see,  I've been ignoring my Stephen King Christmas present stacked there on the floor, but I can't ignore it for much longer, what with the way it's been barking up my leg begging me to crack its spine and devour. But once I do, I consider the book done, it's ate, it's no…

I am The Authority; nothing comes from you and everything comes from me, and only the algae in the pond are lower than you.

You will not make decisions on your own. You are not your own person because everything of you, about you, around you, and relates to you is mine.

You are nothing in the scope of this world. You are NOBODY in the scope of this world, and you shall…

i have to go...i have to go back...i have to go back to work tomorrow.

every cell in my body (even the ones that i squeezed and promoted from fat to muscle who promptly ran to the hills of my hips and gut) are telling me in unison i must prepare to go back there tomorrow.

back to face the harpies, the malcontents (even me), the new computer system from italy that hasn't worked in the 10 months they've been trying to bring it online, the you-don't-pay-me-enough-t0-cares that i…

Lila paced the wooden floor studying her novitiates, waiting for the moment to flower when their bodies had enough of lying stiff and prone on the floor, fingertips and toes outstretched, hip to hip naked under a kingsize bedsheet. Lila paced in front of them, watching their fingertip energy shift from pressing their prints into the floor like the end times were coming to becoming flaccid, pale little worms. Lila felt the time come, so she yanked the sheet from…