Winning Stories

---“It’s not him, is it, Jack? It’s just not him.” My mother’s despairing words were a mournful poem that reverberated inside my head whenever I visited the hospital. She was so right. The wizened shell inhabited by something totally alien was a parody of the father I had known. Those chafing images implanted in my head threatened to bury the good that had gone before. Sitting there, in that clinical cleanliness, the odou...

Cards held tightly to the chest.Bluffing is an art at best. Each contestant poker faced.Every action noticed, traced. Watched, scrutinized, weighed.Judgement most times mislaid. Humanity plays yet another card.Keeping players all on guard. Not wanting to show their hand.Fearing others won't understand. When each bet is placed.As every dream is chased. Playing to win their state.Passing the bet they wait. Contemplations be...

I saw her do the dance of loss in rainAs streetlights gleamed above her hair of red Her eyes were glowing as she cried in painBecause she made mistakes and was misled. I saw her do the song of grief in gloomAs echoes of her mourning rang aloudHer tears continued as she read her doomAmong the scattered remnants of a cloud. I saw her do her drawings in the sunAs crowds exclaimed about the work she sharedHer hands were stead...

I am committed and determinedI wonder do slow and steady really do win the raceI hear my name being calledI see myself as a recipient of something greatI want to share my reward with the runners-upI am committed and determinedI pretend I am confidentI feel the pressure mountI touch the proverbial brass ringI worry about not being noticedI cry when I’m frustratedI am committed and determinedI understand things don’t come e...

Maria would never amount to anything. Girls like her never did. It wasn’t like she really had any choices, that’s just the way things were and everybody with any sense knew it. To think otherwise would be mere folly. Girls in her part of town never amounted to anything. The best she could hope for was to find a good husband some day, and hopefully escape the welfare system life she knew all too well. Growing up in a third...

Dear God,It’s been a while since I went out. My children are all happily married and remarried now and well settled. My elder born is in The States doing his research work in molecular biology…or did he say molecular sciences? That is where he met his wife also doing her research on the same subject. Simple boy he was, nose deep in his books, always knew he had to make something worthwhile of his life. We are not rich peo...