Ice Cold Eyes

From an email I received: Authors of fiction may submit sci-fi and fantasy, 1,000 to 8,000 words. They accept stories on most themes, but they are especially interested in, “compelling adventures, folk-retellings, stories of hope in the dark, emotional healing, love of all sorts, environmentalism, and the humanity (or lack of it) among the fantastical and speculative.”

He stared at me with ice cold eyes. Every part of the cave was melting. I hung back in the shadows, not knowing when the growling in my stomach would go away, or if I even wanted it to. I had come here, after all, for a spiritual awakening, but this cave in the middle of God knows where in Mexico was starting to feel like a prison.

Adam was always quiet, and today he was especially, except he was talking with his eyes. The burned into me. There was an anger I had never seen before, usually tempered by a softness, but not this time. I cleared my throat. He scowled.

I looked up at the stalagmites and watched the dripping. All of them dripping together sounded like a percussionist convention, haphazard but oddly comforting. Methodical and hypnotizing, it eclipsed my attention until he spoke.

"We are stuck here, you know," he said. 

Just moments ago, I tried to move a large rock and it created a small avalanche, which created a new obstacle of stones which now blocked our exit. The fall was the height of drama. Then the rocks settled and it was quiet. Minutes seemed like days. I hid, waiting for what was next. 

There was still sunlight coming in over the pile of rocks, which was encouraging. Light could get in. It gave us hope for now. I stepped out of the shadows and into the one sunbeam falling in. 

"I know," I said. 

Radical Acceptance

He wrote me a paper

Bled it into being

Sat upon the salt mine

Turned my envy green

She said he name was Ruby

she poured the champagne

Grey Ghost stomped me silly

I swung where I hanged

Gretchen was the one

who served the beer

that fateful night

when I fell into his stars

Memory of a Mermaid

I saws the photo on my brain, burned in like the tattoo on a sailor

his arm hairy and strong from pulling rope

his face sunburned and hard flesh

calloused palms and eyes as clear as vinegar

My life escaped like a mermaid under the water

pristine in its disappearance

like a memory 

or a dream.

What is heavy?

What is heavy?

Like Coltrane heavy?

No like hammer heavy.

Like anvil heavy?

No more like Simone.

Nina?

Yeah.

Heavier than heavy. Think big.

Mountain.

Planet.

Nah, you know what's heavy?

The weight of who you used to be.

Is it Lost

The monk looked upon the wood columns in the monastery and was confused...

He had a beginner's mind and didn't know where he was.

A student asked him how to find peace, and he replied

"Is it lost?"

Truth Window

 I left it open

and felt the breeze

I fell asleep

and began to dream

the moonlight shone

the silence wept

the stars are gone

I must have slept

I awoke and felt a chill

I pushed down the sash

to hit the sill

The glass was cold

The sun was out

I don't recall

what I dreamt about

Email Marketing

Accelerate me, automate me

make my process into a linear money-making machine

Send out emails and bring in cash

wouldn't it be great 

if business worked like that

Street Dreams

I'm gonna focus on the right side of the sunlight

Ripped up the sky and came down in a beam

Hit the ground running chasing the night

Sideways dance toward the street dreams

Smartphones el train rhythm of the rails

Please me beg for change on the cement

I fell to my knees wishing on the holy grail

To pick up the penny on the ground I got bent

Made off with the car wheel turn turn

Demons in the blood of her her

Man strong cigarette tip burn burn

smoke made fog in the mirror mirror (mer mer)

The tempest that old school magic

Save the Spades and the Queen

It's just me, it's just a habit

talking facts on street dreams

talking facts on street dreams

That cafe closed down it's empty now

No more coffee and cream

Got me tied up to the chair

mesmerized 

All my care laid bare

Hypnotized

All these lines I memorized

I plaguerized

White Matter

Rogers Park is covered in snow, the roads are clear

but her lawns and gardens are full of this white matter.

The ice is partially melted but the slush is collecting

right where you need to step to cross the road.

I used to walk to Indian Boundary Park

thinking of the days of old

how the Fox River and another point made a triangle on a map

and this imaginary line was where

fate was recalled

I used to walk to Albion Beach and let the waves hit my face

the wind slapped me like I was its bitch

and the lifeguards would yell to not go there

I would walk instead in a little circle

imagining myself a philosopher in Rome

under the canopy of this stone-henge-like architecture

someone built

with a gravel walking path

I then would go to the beach

and try to look content

as I sat in the hot sun with a book

Then I went swimming

in the giant waves

that picked me up

and carried me.

Watching Too Much YouTube

I slayed my finger, cut it off, just like Johnny and Amber Heard

wrote it out in blood for all to see 

the wrongs we'd done

as the crowds watched

For the hippies in Australia I had no poison left

I'd just as soon rip off my arm as give you my house

I'd reach for you but you're not there

a dream of what used to be 

lights dim,

Curtain.

Superstition

I recalled today that my purpose here is to try different styles. So here goes...

The mirror has stripped me

of my superstition

which was rooted in my brain

and cloaked me in its protection

Every move I made used to be

lined up with distant stars

and now here I am unmasked 

from that Geometry

Now I just bleed--

like everyone else.