The cursor on the blank spread of a Word document seems to taunt me as it clicks backwards, forwards, off and on. I heard that back in the day, the same kind of mocking dance would have been played with a typewriter whose ink drips, waiting for words. The lack of scratching would have tormented those writers the same way the harsh clicks torment me. It’s 2 A.M. right now, and these are the ramblings of a madman who doesn'...

She was ironically beautiful, like a gasoline rainbow. I have found this to be the truest truth: beauty comes in all forms, but the kind of beauty that changes you somewhere inside always comes in the shape of a gasoline rainbow. The kind of rainbow you see in a gas station at two o’clock in the morning with your heart weighed heavy with secrets and loss and your soul burdened with regret. The kind of rainbow that smells...

"Welcome to Dave's Place," I said from behind the bar. I can always recognize someone with a story. She walked through the door glancing around like she wasn't supposed to be here. Yet, she couldn't have arrived by accident. This place was very obvious from the outside. You know what you're going to find. It was much bigger than the surrounding buildings and the sign had my name. There were oversized glass doors to the en...

“Your father loves you.” My mother spoke for him, but he didn’t look up from his work, nor smiled. I never could understand what he was doing after dinner when occupied at the kitchen table in the evening. I assumed that it had something to do with his underpaid job as an operations manager of a grocery warehouse; second in command. Beermans were always second in charge. An uncle was assistant police chief and another unc...

The Minotaur had a score to settle. He was trapped in the center of the Labyrinth, spellbound so he could not leave. And who was the monster that cast the spell, imprisoning him thus? None other than his namesake, the evil King Minos. And Minos didn’t even have the decency to have plumbing installed. Day in and day out the Minotaur paced the Labyrinth’s center, his powerful feet wearing a groove into the marble floor. Alw...

Dear AuthorAs you may be aware from my earlier letters, I am one of your biggest fans. I loved your last book — and I don't just mean I liked it a lot. I mean I loved it the way a man loves his wife, his children, his parents. The way a drowning man loves a life jacket, or the stranger who dives into the water to rescue him, heedless of the danger; the way that stranger loves others more than himself. I really, really lov...

Gordon Fink looked in the bathroom mirror and muttered to himself, I look like an old man. He leaned over the sink, then moved his face closer to the mirror and noticed the wrinkles on his forehead, his thinning white hair. I'm losing so much hair. He looked at his pale, watery eyes. My eyes aren't as blue as they used to be. He turned his face to the left. Maybe it's the florescent light. Look at you. You're old. Your li...

I could smell the peculiar saltiness of the sea and the waves were audible to me. My eyes fluttered open to the bright blue sky and I had to shut them back quickly due to the scorching sunlight. After a few seconds, I managed to open them again and sat up. While I was feeling the sand beneath me, my eyes adjusted to the surroundings. I was on a seashore, which was unfamiliar to me. Clear water, waves splashing, big brown...

As I get on the bus and find myself a seat, I am so very tired and know that it will be a long ride to my house. Praying that I could have the car fixed and not ride the bus for the 100th time. I sit and wait to get the long ride over with. My eyes spot two twin girls and their mom. These girls are full of energy. Both are talking non stop and I hope they are the kind that are not much trouble on public transportation, Th...

The wood-spoked wheels of the old Crow-Elkhart began sinking in the soft mud along the shoulder of Route 9W almost as soon as I stopped the car. I had just pulled off the macadam in a panic, at the sharp command of my father. Aunt Alma protested that she was alright, but she was looking rather pale, from what little I could see of her. A towering stack of luggage, all her worldly possessions, filled most of the back-seat,...

A strange thing happened today. While I was responding to a nice comment on one of my poems, I heard a thump on the window of my bedroom. Curiously I got out of bed and looked out. What I saw on the ground was the body of an adolescent Cardinal. I realized at once that the poor little bugger had inadvertently bashed into the unseen glass; probably on its maiden flight. The parents, I saw, were sitting in a bush a few feet...

Stalingrad, December 25, 1942.Winter blankets everything, turning the landscape bizarrely beautiful. If you look carefully, you can make out shapes under the hoarfrost and snow. Burned out tanks and piles of brick and steel that were once buildings litter the frozen battlefield that was once home to over 400,000 Russian men, women, and children. Now the corpses outnumber the living. You can see them as well, frozen limbs...

Once there were two best buddies named Jack and Ben. Jack was a great bibliophile, and Ben was a very dynamic and motivational speaker. Every day in school, they exchanged their ideas on studies and got good grades in the examination. Only after reaching home, they both had a complication for the interchange of ideas, as their houses were far away from each other. Every day after reaching home, Jack spent most of his leis...

Rising strings of violins wretch in my head’s empty chamber and descend deep into the chasms of my throat. I can feel them tremble and whisper, “We will shake hands with Heaven the day all of this rubble turns to light and returns to stars.” Mallets strike my eardrums without any pattern, rhythm, or beat. Sympathy possesses either any man or God, for God is sleeping now, heavy and guarded. His comatosed arm is thrown as h...

It will be a warm day in Hell... It was the largest meeting in Hell (Michigan) that I could remember. The Town Hall had been taken over by TV crews from all over, for their annual conference. They had been snowed-in for the last three days. Yes, they were supposed to leave last Sunday but here we are on Wednesday and they are still here. I say this through gritted teeth...I mean, they are welcome – any extra business to t...