Whodunnit

Rustling leaves Dead of night It lurks and waits The dim of light The child knows The child fears The thing that lives But no one hears A flash of steel The red of blood A silenced cry And then he’s gone                 Image Source

Wilde-eyed

It’s been said before. It happens to all. Down in that gutter – a moment of clarity begins to ignite. All hope’s not lost. We strain to look up. Those dazzling pinpoints pierce the sky. It starts there. And we begin to climb.       Image Source

The Kiss That Almost Was

She leaned into me, tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes. I did the same as I waited for the inevitable kiss. Under different circumstances, this might have played out like a Robert Doisneau photograph. But reality never plays out that way… Especially when you’re a teenager. In that mid-price range hotel…

Little Luke’s Tea Time

Little Luke loved recess time. For this first grader – as is with all 6-year-old children in general, and especially for the boys and girls in his first grade class who never once gave him a second thought, recess lasted an eternity. The others quickly learned the value of cliques and groups, disdain and contempt…

A Dying Sun

There was a time when things were different. That longing, because it was a longing, permeated through her skin and infected the air until she could bear it no longer. She opened a window, but only the last of the sunlight’s strength seeped in. The crisp, still air of a new autumn did nothing to…

Not Quite Ready For That Close-Up

From the Sunset Blvd screenplay Slow dissolve to: Hollywood, seen from the Hilltop at Ivar & Franklin Streets. Joe Gillis (VO) I was living in an apartment    house above Franklin and Ivar. Camera pans toward the Alto Nido, an ugly Moorish structure of stucco about four stories high. Actually, it is six stories high.…

Murder at Dawn

The rays of the sun cut through the mist, forcing its retreat. Wounded by the oncoming light, the mist leaves behind parts of itself. The dampness on the ground, the droplets on the tree limbs: dismembered parts reminding the world that no crime shall go unpunished. The day grows and the sun sweeps through the…

Three Cats on Their Own

This was our first vacation in over ten years. We were gone a week. We didn’t know what to expect when we arrived home. Secretly, I hoped they would have noticed our absence. Truthfully, I didn’t expect them to even care. But when we opened the door to our apartment, the reception was mixed. Our…

Autumn Haiku in Winter

A burst of sunlight A tree consumed by fire Ignites the Autumn I’m from Southern California, so watching the seasons change is a new thing to me. I moved to Oregon in August just in time to watch the trees turn from green to an array of browns, yellows, and reds. This tree pictured above…