Three-room broken-down house Mother an earthbound saint Stepfather a raging drunken demon from the fire Cheap bars on every corner Seven day a week homes for the old and pathetic Four little churches and they still couldn’t save my soul Drunks pissing in the yard at three Passing out on the steps to a God they can’t find We live two miles past the wrong side of town An omen we lived on a dead-end street Took me thirty years to see the humor in the old sign The factories shuttered their doors one summer Then the small guys fled…

I was lying on the floor next to my writing desk staring at the ceiling Two hours, two glasses of wine, and two words written My dog was on the floor next to me her face in my face You are pathetic old man, just pathetic, she whispered Maybe it was the wine, but she was right, nothing sadder than a burnt-out writer in the wee hours without a clue The reptilian part of my brain hurt If writing something of substance today was necessary for my survival then I was a dead man doomed to death by mediocrity Write…

My days in San Francisco were the dark years Work I hated and women who hated me I did not understand living in those days but I was a master of barely surviving There was a crazy man who lived in the bushes behind where I worked His name was Larry Big man, long hair and the smile of a child But reality and he had parted ways years ago Red green, green red, green red, dirty money, you got pretty clothes was his usual greeting as he wandered the streets too far gone to even ask for change But…

Time and I used to be lovers We spent the misspent days of my self-destructive youth hand-in-hand Time always brought me more wine and more women, She loved me as no other, giving me sunrises to waste and days of love that would never end Why should I care about the minutes I screamed, when my years are just beginning, as endless as the lies of a politician Cannot you not understand Time is mine alone forever But Time was one who could not be owned She who wanted nothing from me now wanted it all, and she finally had…

When I could not think of anything I would think of you Sweaty wasted nights in my youth Working all day doing work I hated Drinking much of the night with friends of the moment Couldn’t afford air conditioning in those days Three roommates sharing the cost of a dump Me laying on a mattress on the floor staring at a ceiling fan twirling slowly above my head Irritating hum leaving me hot and frustrated much the way the rest of my life was going in those years I dreamed in those hours of a love that would save me…

February Cultural Prompt

Children are born to see the love in all those around them
Their hearts untouched by the fingers of hate
Open and willing to accept others because of who they are
Judging those around them by how they treat others
Innocent in the ways of how dark the world can be

Hatred is learned
Taught by those who blame others for their own failings
Prejudice the weapon of the ignorant
Wielded as a sword to punish anyone who is different than they
Using hate to show the world the emptiness of a weak soul

Children are born to sing a…

Warm fall day of fading golden light staring at the water with my pup in my lap nowhere to go…nowhere I had to be nowhere I want to be besides where I am not a single person wondering or caring where I am today phone at home and far away from my thoughts my mind at rest and my dreams my own the perfect minutes of the day fading into lost hours a rare moment alone within my own head at peace out of sight and out of mind we gauge our days by how busy we are how much…

I sit in the park alone on a bench Bleak days gone now Pale sun gives me hope I watch a young father across from me Face down in his phone Two little girls playing in the new grass in front of him Spring dresses but jackets and rubber boots Their play and giggling make me happy They break into a song and I want to cry from their joy The father sees nothing He is furiously pounding out texts Everyone on the other end more important than his girls One sits quietly on the bench next to him and…