Poem: Melpomene Muse of Tragedy

When the sun of my life was shining
The ink on my quill was bone dry
The words on paper had vanished
Under a tongue wet with drink
Flowing with boisterous laughter
Fates must have known I strayed

Poem: Empty Streets and an Empty Room

Her smell lingers like a ghost
on blankets strewn across the couch.

Out the window that is frosting
from the cold outside compared
to the warmth inside, and beyond
I see the street is empty.

She has moved on.

Short Story: Standing on an Empty Street Without Direction

Lena breathed in the chilly night air.

It was the hour of the morning when the previous night’s mistakes lingered but hadn’t taken root into full-blown regrets.
She looked up the street.

Then down the street

Then back to me sitting on the stoop, head in hands, fighting off the oncoming hangover.

Poem: The Mock Epic of Blond Beard

The seven seas had never seen such a terror
As blond beard the first pirate of Nebraska
He had applied his pirating skills
Selling his yard sale finds on eBay
To fund his pirate ship the Emma Lee
A beauty of steel of polymer
With patches of bright white
Seats for two and off board motor
That once ran and would run again
Once he got permission from the missus

Short Story: Looking for Something

A hand with painted nails caresses the wall in the dark before finding the light switch. Fluorescent lights flicker on, casting the entire room in the whitest of white lights. No shadows tread under their radiance.

With swaying hips, her presence fills the sparse room that smells of sweet perfumes and sin.

At the far end of the space, antique furniture made by an artisan’s loving hand, arranged in a semicircle. There was a trunk of deep mahogany with crushed velvet lining, an ornately carved wardrobe made of solid walnut, a painted vanity splayed with beauty products, and a perfectly polished full-length mirror.

The keepers of her treasures awaited their mistress to explore their depths.

Poem: Good News

Do you hear their cries lord
As they raise them to you

Your name and your mothers name
The Holy Spirit and father
On their lips calling out
From cages where they sit alone
No mother
No father

Only you