I need to write more.

Fabioisonfire

total a-hole
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Posts
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Desperately trying to work on my writing skill so I can be a better screenwriter. You can find them on this fancy-shmancy hip Tumblr account I've set up here, but I am also going to post them here. Tell me what you think, how I can improve, etc. Thanks doods.

Becky Voight and my filthy hands
This bathroom smells weird. I don?t mean to say it smells weird as in Becky doesn?t have good hygiene, it?s a different brand of weird. Like old candles or something. I bet the scent she picked has a name like ?Bahama Breeze?. Why does this wallpaper have ducks on it? Who built this place and decided that the ducks were necessary?

The worst part about taking a piss as a man is that no matter how many times you shake your John, there will always be just one or two, sometimes three, covert drops of urine that make their move a minute or so after you zip up. As a species we?ve sent men to space, but we haven?t evolved to the point where I can take a pee and not have a receipt in my underwear every time?

?Did you wash your hands?? She chirps from the couch.

Did I wash my hands? I?m about to describe something that many men can attest to, but few can articulate. I?ll preface it with this: women are emotional creatures and they act on emotion first and logic second. Men are the opposite. Here comes the logic part.

Becky Voight was my latest trist in a series of short-lived relationships with women determined to destroy themselves and take me down in the midst of the wreckage. She?s tall, taller than I am. She has a handful of freckles that dot her face and run across the bridge of her tiny nose. Her brown hair was back in a bun and she was wearing sweatpants, and, even in this lazy garb, she was still a beautiful specimen. So when I hear Becky Voight ask me if I washed my hands or not, a myriad of possible outcomes race through my brain.

Outcome number one involves a denial. I could deny that I didn?t wash my hands, but what if she knows for a fact that I didn?t? That would be quite an embarrassing predicament. I can?t risk embarrassment. Not on the second date, at least. This is date four or five stuff, at the very least.

Outcome number two involves honesty. I could admit to Becky Voight that I just took a piss and didn?t even come close to touching hot water or soap. She?d either react with disgust, or pleasant surprise that I was honest. Now, honesty isn?t my usual policy on date two, but times like these call for some risks.

?Uh, no, I didn?t.?

?That?s disgusting. Go wash them.?

?But I just?? I tried to defend myself but my efforts were futile. She cut me off faster than an angry New York driver.

?You just touched your penis! That?s why!? Her gesticulations are a clear demonstration on how to clean a pair of hands.

Men think with logic first and emotion second. Here comes the emotion part.

?Becky, do you realize that my hands are probably more filthy than my dick is? Think about it, all day, I?m touching this disgusting city, practically bathing in it. I mean, just today I shook some homeless guy?s hand. There could have been anything on that dude?s palm. I don?t know! But guess what? My dick is safely inside TWO LAYERS of clothing almost all day! It?s safe! No germs in there! Nobody complains when I touch them with my disgusting hands, but if someone comes in contact with my dick, it?s all ?WOAH THERE BUDDY, THAT?S A PENIS!?, and you know what? I??

?Wait are?? she tried to interject but this time it was my turn to have the last word. I was running high on hand/penis washing.

?No. You know what? Men shouldn?t have to wash their hands after they pee. They just shouldn?t. We should uninstall all regular sinks in men?s bathrooms and replace them with dick washing stations. I?m touching my clean penis with my gross hands, it only makes sense, right? I should be washing my dick and not my hands! And just for the record you touched my penis very recently so maybe YOU should be doing the hand washing here! Society has it backwards, don?t you see?! So yeah.?

The only way I can describe the look on Becky Voight?s face was a mixture of ?Please leave now? and halfway to confusion. Her few freckles seemed to snuggle up next to each other and hold each other for comfort as her nose scrunched.

I lost Becky Voight on the second date because I didn?t wash my hands once. **** me.


In this bookstore
In this bookstore I am reminded of my old man. In my head I can see a large hotel dining hall. The tables are white and the room is filled with husbands and wives and brothers and sisters all talking about what?s in store for today. There are a few men cooking in this room. They all wear a tall and white chef?s hat. I meekly ask for an omelet, my voice cracking in embarrassment. The man is cooking my omelet now, and his hands are flying across the portable stove. The man flips my omelet into the air, and slides it onto my plate.

I?m running back to my father to tell him what had just happened now. In my own excitement I trip. My plate shatters, even against the soft and cheap carpeting of this large hotel. My omelet is ruined. No one is talking now. Everyone is looking at me now. I?m crying now. My dad rushes over to me. He takes my hand and we leave without eating any omelets.

We?re going through the exit when a very old and tired man stops us. He?s wearing an old and brown suit, its stitches almost as exhausted as he is. His hands are shaking uncontrollably. He?s kneeling down now, and I?m looking into his fatigued and brown eyes now.

?Everyone has oopsies sometimes.?

The man is standing up now. He?s shaking my father?s hand now. He?s walking away from us, very slowly now. My dad and I are in the car now. I?m looking up at my dad. His eyes are red.
 
Here are some more.

This is your paragraph
Our hands have been locked for so long that I almost don’t even notice the tickle of your dancing thumb on the out of my palm. First you scribe only circles but then come the letters. You think I can’t see, won’t see, or don’t notice, but I can and will and do. Staring at each tiny stroke I mouth corresponding characters under my breath. As letters add up I realize that you aren’t writing anything coherent at all—just tracing sweet little nothings on the palm of my hand because whispering was never very ‘you’.

This bench can be quiet, too
It is 2009 and I am at a park with a blonde girl. The red paint that covers this bench we sit at barely clings on, and I’m picking at it very slowly. My fingertips are a dark shade of pink and dried paint sticks under my fingernails like old skin. The wind whips my hair.

“You’re so quiet. What’s the matter?” She just said.

I’m shaking my head. ”Nothing’s the matter,” I say to her, as I pick paint. I mean it too.

She looks at me for a moment and nudges me now.

“Cheer up!”

“I’m not upset.” I’m still shaking my head and I’m still being sincere.

“Okay, sure.” She just barely scooted away from me.

“Hey, I’m just not talkative right now. Nothing’s wrong, I promise.” But now I’m lying for both of us. Something is wrong now. I pick a slightly bigger chip of dry paint off the bench now.

“You just seem upset.” She says.

“We can’t just sit in silence for a second and be okay with that?”

“I just want to talk. I don’t like awkward silences.”

For a moment I forgot what awkward silence is like, but then the sound of me peeling paint breaks ours and I remember again.

“I just don’t have anything to say right now.”

“Well what is that supposed to mean?” She’s mad now.

“Let’s not get into this right now.”

“Oh, because you like it quiet. Okay, let’s have quiet time now.” She scoots just a hair further and I grab another piece of cracked paint. I’m going along with her request and I’m not talking. It’s quiet time now.

A few moments pass and I can tell she’s about to speak again.

“You’re not mad at me?”

“No. I’m not mad at you. Listen, we don’t always need to be talking, okay?”

“Okay.”

“There doesn’t always need to be a topic at hand. Some of the time I just like to sit here and listen to the wind and the grass and our breath and that’s it. That’s it.”

She’s being very quiet now and I think I hurt her feelings. I’m waiting for her to respond to me to confirm my suspicions.

“Can we stare?”

She just surprised me. I’m looking down at my hands and now I’m shaking the stuck paint off my palms.

“Yes we can.”

And now we sit and stare and listen.
 
More still. Let me know what you think.

Bottling up lightning
It is the summer of 1999 and I am young and I am alive. My sister and I are racing outside now, our bare and naked feet fly across the hardwood floor and onto our tired deck. My prescient mother, resting in a green plastic chair, is already waiting for the two of us to dart into the nightly confines of our very Philadelphian backyard. She?s looking at the pair of us, her smile the starting pistol to an evening of adventure.

I?m grabbing a glass jar and tossing one to my younger sister now. Her and I now dash down the few steps of our porch and step onto our playing field. I can see them all, now. The lightning bugs. They dot our lawn like incandescent snowflakes, occasionally lifting off to find a new temporary resting place. I can almost hear the beat of a thousand tiny wings right now. There must be hundreds here. They paint our yard now, never satisfied with their place on the canvas.

But this wonder is nothing new to my sister and I. We have done this as far as my memory will stretch. We?re dashing off in different directions now, as to cover the most ground. There isn?t a second to waste, not a moment to spare?I?m not sure how much longer the fireflies will glow for us. Now that I?m over by the big tree at the edge of the lawn, I can begin my work.

A particularly gleaming bug is drifting past my eyes right now. I?m going to turn my jar to the side, very carefully now, and? got him. Quickly I?m screwing the lid back on my jar. I eye my twinkling prize. It?s crawling on the side of my jar now, exploring his new home, I?m sure. I can?t think of a name for him quite yet, but there will be time for formalities later. Right now I need to continue the hunt.

Bending down now I scoop up a bug at my feet. I?m feeling the minuscule legs of the thing tickle my palm now. I?m assessing my catch. This one is too small. It simply will not do. It needs to grow and mature before I could even consider capturing this luminous soul. I?m going to let it go. I open my palm and it flits away from me, surely rejoining his glowing brethren but this time with a story to tell.

My baby sister and I are darting across our lawn, back and forth now, for what has seemed like only a few moments. We?re laughing, enthralled in the beauty and wonderment of the scene.

?Hey, Dea, I found a really big one right here!? I?m exclaiming to my sister now.

?Fabio, Fabio, I see a really bright one! Come here!? She?s yelling back.

It hasn?t been long but our game is over now. We?re saying good night to the fireflies now and sprinting back up to our wood deck, exhausted from the chase but running on an adrenaline high. I briefly and proudly show my mom the night?s catch and before she can say ?Oh, wow,? I?ve already begun staring at my jar, full of little lightning bugs. It?s glowing bright, my suburban lantern.

My usual request to bring the jar inside has been denied again, per usual. Now it?s time for me to make this glass jar for my lightning bugs a home. I?m poking tiny holes in the top of the jar using a pen now so they can breath. I?m going to place some grass in too so they have food. What a nice home I?ve made for Steven, Ross, Fireman, Lightdude, Ember, Doug, Nick, and Eric. I?m going to say good night to you now, little guys. I?ll see you in the morning!

Morning is here now and I?m running outside to check on my prized jar. Only one of my fireflies is alive now. He?s slowly crawling across the bottom of the glass, navigating through the bodies of his mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts. His belly is smoldering ever so dimly now, barely casting a light in this hot morning sun. I don?t think they liked the grass I gave them, either.

?Mom, why do my bugs always die in the morning? I even gave them grass this time.? I?m asking my poor mother now.

?Because?? She begins. ?Because their light only burns for a night. They burn bright and hot, some more bright than others. Their bellies are big and glow at night but it will only last for so long. In the morning their lightbulb burns out and they die. Their lightbulb burns out, that?s all.?

Shaking my now lifeless and lightless jar out into the yard now, I?m wondering how bright my lightbulb will burn.

This second hand on my Timex
tick tick tick tick

It?s so silent in this box of a room. Save for the click and clack of my keyboard, the only noise audible is the tick of the second hand on my Timex. This second hand makes this stifled sound every second of every day and yet the only time I notice it is at the most quiet point in the night.

tick tick tick tick

It?s practically screaming at me now, this second hand. I?m taking the watch off and setting it on my desk now because this is the time to write and not the time to pay attention to this second hand. Not now.

tick tick tick tick

Although the space between I and this second hand has increased, its constant motion is somehow still roaring at me. I can?t take my eyes off of this second hand. It?s begging me, now. Pay attention to me.

tick tick tick tick

Now I set the watch in one of my drawers. Still, the second hand on my Timex barks. Look at me. Listen to me, put me on. I?m here. I?m here. I can?t ignore it any more. I take the small battery out of the watch. Now in perceived silence I can still hear this second hand.

tick tick tick tick

Listen to me, I?m right here. Put me on, turn me on, play with me feel me look at melistentomepleaseI?mhereI?mrightnexttoyou.


I wish I had a second hand.

This is poetry
This is a play on words, but I?m not acting

The stage has been set and act one has begun

Unsure of my lines, so I?m just reacting

Here we are at the intermission halfway

Falling action will follow, d?nouement hollow

How real it feels, this character I portray

Now the performance is over, curtains close

My audience will clap, roses thrown perhaps

Impressed they are with my admirable prose
 
All of these are very interesting and well written. Keep it up Fabio!

R.I.P. Steven, Ross, Fireman, Lightdude, Ember, Doug, Nick, and Eric. :(
 
Nice! That first one is pretty funny. xD I wouldn't ask a guy if they washed their hands or not, but I'd expect them to. :3 I see one flaw in that "emotional logic" there and that's yes.. he was all over the city touching god knows what, having filthy hands. Going to the bathroom could just be a reminder to actually wash them, considering hes admitting that they are dirty, it shouldn't matter if going pee is causing them to be even dirtier or not.

He seems to have skipped that completely in his logical state of mind. In the middle of a conversation is not a time to over analyze these things, so I wouldn't expect anyone caught in that situation to actually put that together so quickly.

I don't know why I just rambled about a short story, but it was just amusing to think of after reading it, so I shared.
Anyway I like your writing here, I'll check out your tumblr too
 
Untitled
We talk about these beginnings and ends of our story so often that we’ve nearly omitted the middle. The blissful betwixt bits, the soft-edged and out of focus pleasant parts, memories jammed somewhere in the center of you and I. Our hands have torn page thirty to one hundred eighteen and nearly everything in between. My ‘1: Hello (0:12)’ and your ‘12: Goodbye (2:27)’ played on repeat for so long that the disc skipped ‘6: Harmony (3:12:6:05)’.

Michael
I’m remembering my Junior year in high school right now.

I’m an aide for a middle school Geography class. It’s a windy Wednesday afternoon. 2:30 in the P.M. Today I’m helping Michael out. I don’t have much Michael experience but I’ve heard that Michael has a form of autism. I don’t have much autism experience either.

Michael sits alone, in the front of the room. He doesn’t have his own desk, either. He uses a table. He’s using a spare, brown, and obviously spared computer chair, a heavy contrast to the blue and orange plastic seats his classmates share.

I’m sitting next to Michael now, introducing myself. But he knows the drill, I can tell. ‘You’re here to help me, you’re here to tell me what to do, right?’ his face is saying to me. I don’t think he’s very interested in my greeting or my help. I wouldn’t be, either.

“How about we start at the top of chapter four?”

Michael is reading to me right now. He’s painfully making out phrases, each sentence doing battle with his head. I can tell he’s struggling.

“How about we take a short break from this?” I say to Michael.

“Okay.” Michael is setting his book down. His teacher, Mrs. Warila, walks out of the room briefly.

“Man, this class reminds me of hell. Know what I mean, Mike?” I say, leaning back into my chair now.

Michael is looking me directly in the eye when he says “I’m in a kind of hell of my own, if you know what I mean.”

I’m looking into Michael’s eyes and I do know what he means. But I don’t acknowledge that now. I’m ignoring what Michael is quite clearly saying to me and I’m continuing to read with him.

But I’m sorry for you right now, Mike. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I know what you mean, and I’m even sorrier that there isn’t anything I can do for you. I’m sorry that this is your reality. I’m sorry.

“Okay, let’s continue onto chapter five…”

Half Speed
Sometimes these things happen at half speed. If you grip a steering wheel tight enough your fingers can turn white. And when your 1995 Dodge Intrepid is tumbling down a long ditch you can lose your sense of direction. The only clear thought in his head in that moment was this: “I wish I would have taken more chances.”

Sometimes these things happen at half speed.
 
Isn't it funny?
Isn’t it funny to think

that if you never spilled your milk

and if I never said ‘hi’

we wouldn’t be crying

over spilt milk

and ‘goodbye’?

Samantha
Samantha, I held her in my arms and she wept. My beautiful, delicate flower, my Samantha. Hot tears roll down her suntanned skin. I see one tickle the corner of her mouth.

“They’re salty…” she says.

“Samantha, have you never cried before?” I ask.

“Sure, I’ve cried. When I was little, yeah. But it’s been a while.”

Samantha stares up at me with her red and wet eyes.

“When was the last time you cried?” she asks me back.

I think about this one for a time. When was the last time that I cried?

“I’m not sure. I guess it’s been a while for me, too.” I answer her.

“Oh, come on. You must remember.”

“Well, do you remember?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Tell me, then.” I request.

Samantha looks down at our naked feet, digging into the sand.

“Well, I was very young.”

“How young?”

“Maybe seven, or eight years old.”

“Okay.”

“And I was here.”

“You were right here?”

“Well, not right here. But I was here, on the beach.” she says, running her hand through the sand, smashing it into her tiny fist.

“I was building a sand castle. It was the biggest and best sand castle I had ever made. It had a moat, and six, or maybe seven towers. It was perfect. I worked on it all day.”

“And then?”

“When the sun got low the tide came in. I could see the water creeping closer and closer to me and my castle, I could see it. I knew it was coming… But, I almost ignored it. It won’t get to me, I thought. It won’t get this far.”

“And did it?”

“It did. It really was happening slowly but it came up on me fast, like falling asleep. I remember I started building a wall around my castle, rapidly, to try and protect it.”

“Did it work?”

“Only at first. But I could only scoop the sand so fast, and before I knew it, water was rushing over my wall and flooding my moat and melting my castle. That’s when I cried.”

It was on our 61st and final day that I realized she was my castle and I her moat. Time crept up onto us slowly and surely, but before we could build up our walls, the ocean had washed her away, and I was another drop in her bucket. Separated by forces beyond our control, my memory of her crumbling like the sand of eight year old Samantha’s castle.

I wonder where she’s floating now.
 
That's some deep stuff. Keep it up. You should also join the Bell Tree Writing Guild!
 
One thousand miles
One thousand miles is too far to shout to. It’s too far to hug from. Too far to kiss from. You can’t touch from one thousand miles. Can’t laugh. You aren’t able to love from a thousand miles. Not able to fight, either.

One thousand miles doesn’t allow for any slip ups. It isn’t too keen on forgiveness, either. One thousand miles wants to eat away at a bond, slowly at first but then it likes to swallow things whole.

If distance makes the heart grow fonder then I’m not far enough.

I hate one thousand miles.

And then I woke up
Before this memory of a fake fades: last night you were in my dreams. We were sitting down somewhere, anywhere, everywhere. My arm was wrapped around you, your head rested on my shoulder. Wind from nowhere at our backs, you look at me.

“I missed you,” you said.

See title.

Dear you,
Tell me, is the winter over? Can you finally give all of those knit reindeer sweaters a resting place in the attic? If you peak your head out the window, will you see the sun shine? How many snowflakes fell? Were there enough to cover the ground? Did your breath ever fog up the glass? Did your hair ever curl and freeze after a shower?

I’m so full of questions. This winter seemed so long that I nearly forgot snow does not hamper cell phone signals, or impede e-mails, or stop Facebook messages titled ‘Hi’ dead in their tracks.

It’s still snowing here.

-Me
 
Mixed and mashed and tangled and jumbled
Mixed and mashed and tangled and jumbled
This was it. This was the barely seen over, all too true and all too soon realization that it was over. I didn’t see this coming and didn’t want it to, either. Nor did I understand that the idea of ‘over’ was much too easy, much too… simple, at least for our tastes.

No, you and I could never deal with just ‘over’. We want ‘kind of’ and ‘open’ and ‘with benefits’ and every part of it. We want to go from together and back again and back once more until the lines between us are so blurred and twisted that untangling this mess seems too big a task for just the both of us.

Unwinding this ball of yarn wouldn’t be so hard if we could just both start on the first knot. After running through the history book of us over and over, flipping through the pages so many times that my head hurts, I’ve realized it now—we’ve unraveled.


Smile for the camera
I’m looking at this old photograph of you and I

And I’m trying to picture

Trying to picture what things would be like, I mean

If we could stay in this frame right here

And stay seventeen

They say that nothing lasts forever

So I guess this picture was nothing at all

And if what they say is true

Then I guess we had it all

This snapshot was just one fraction of a fraction

Of our moment, our fling

A moment in time, so small in comparison to all else

But to me that moment was everything
 
A speck of dust
It seems to me as though

Nearly every soul I know

Has but only one concern.

Nobody wants to speak in turn—

Rather sit and smile and nod and stare,

Only waiting for their chance to share.

-

Most are dying to display

That their personalities are unique, un-cliche.

“We are all a beautiful and individual snowflake, so let it snow!”

A teacher once told me. Well teacher did you know

That snowflakes fall by themselves and melt soon after too?

So let me just drop to the ground, out of everyone’s field of view.

-

All that I really want to be

Is another grain of sand, at the bottom of the sea.

Maybe there I could wait and find out

Just how much more of my kind I can bare to doubt.

I’m asking you not to prove my significance, but any time you must

Remember that I’m just a speck of dust.


Sara
I had never seen a pair of eyes like that before.

Each time we passed in the hall and exchanged smiles I was allowed a few more seconds to stare at her bright and amber jewels. Black limbal rings hooped her iris, almost protecting the beautiful colors in her eye from too much sun. Can looks really kill? I must be dead, dead, dead already.

Sara and I had been doing this for a few months, now. Passing in the hall and smiling at each other, neither saying a word. I’m not sure how it started or even when, but what I do know is that I liked it. I liked smiling, especially at her, and I was interested.

Black, long, and wavy hair. A thin frame, but her loose and hip clothes would have never revealed so. A scared and beautiful smile. And those eyes! She was never the object of much attention inside my circle of friends, but I had always thought she was gorgeous. Unusually attractive in her reserved and quiet mannerisms, you could color me interested.

I can’t remember how, but after months of just smiling one of us must have worked up some courage because we wound up with each other’s phone numbers. My junior year was coming to a close and summer was fast approaching.

Texts exchanged. Date set. I was driving around town and she texted me, ready to confirm plans to hang out. I ignored her and blew her off that day. I don’t even know why. What was going through my head? I’m not sure. I don’t know why I did that. We lost contact shortly after.

I’m sorry, Sara. I really am. That was a ****ty thing to do. I wish we had hung out that day. Are you still doing massage therapy? I hope you’re still working at Blazer’s this summer, I’d love to come down and say hi. If not, that’s okay too.

I’ve found that writing about my various **** ups is one of the most extreme catharsis out there, whether the writing is literal or figurative—almost as if Sara read this we could go back in time and do it over again.
 
You sure can sing
Never could write a sweet sounding thing

But damn Caroline you sure can sing

Pluck on me like that sweet guitar

And pick me out the crowd, my little rock star

Please please play me all throughout the night

No one else here, no need for stage fright

Don’t you know, darling? I’m your number one fan

Hey, does your private band still need a front man?

If so, please get back to me in the Spring

Damn Caroline you sure can sing

The far and few
Finally I’m feeling inspired

And you’re all to blame

Did you know what I desired

When I asked for your name?

What was it that you saw

In my single humble gaze?

Thick ice, your eyes could thaw

And dead bodies your warmth could raise

I wonder why you chose me

Or was it I that chose you?

I feel lucky knowing to at least some degree

I have been one of your far and few

Early retirement
Postcard in the mail today. From mom and dad. "Wish you were here! From the sunny beaches of the Bahamas!" Bubbly, yellow and baby blue lettering. Quarter-inch white border around the edge. That old stock photograph of two palm trees and a white, sandy beach. Classic. On the back, in mom's near perfect handwriting: "We miss you honey and can't wait to see you next week! Lots and lots of love, mom." 74 years old and those two are still at it. I hadn't seen them in ages. Hard to believe I'd be joining them in retirement so soon.

Early retirement, that is. Not my idea, though. Doc's orders. Been working construction almost 20 years now. Thought it might be my back that would go first, maybe my shoulders. But not my heart. Not my ticker. Today's the day, though. My pension meeting. God, I'm only 53.

This room they've got me in smells like recycled air and hand sanitizer. I realize now that I've never actually been in our office buildings. None of the guys I work with really had. Nice place. Empty desk in front of me. Figured I'd dress nice for the occasion. Collar itches a bit. A knock at the door behind me. Jeff walks in. Has to get one last word in before I'm gone for good, I'm sure. He's wearing his typical Sears purple button up with black slacks. Guy's never worked a day in his life. Really worked, I mean.

"Oh, hey, Peter. Look's like he hasn't started yet, that's fine. Just wanted to tell you how much we appreciate all the good years you put in here." He nervously extends his hand. Nearly 20 years and he still can't look me in the eye. I humor him and shake it. "Thanks again, Pete." He makes his exit.

Now the door in front of me opens. In walks a tall and thin man. His jet black hair, perfectly sculpted, almost seems to match his thousand watt smile, each tooth gleaming in the white fluorescent light. Clipboard in hand, he greets me.

"Hi Peter. I'm Gordon."

"Gordon, it's nice to meet you."

He shakes my hand and then sits down across from me.

"I'm a retirement planner. I'm here to help in your transitional period."

"That's what they tell me."

"Great, so let's get started. I just need to ask you a few questions, and then you'll follow me into the room behind me where we'll just need you to sign a few dotted lines, and then you'll be on your way. Sound good?"

Sounds like he's said that more than a few times before.

"Sure."

"Okay, great, great. So, Peter, when did you start noticing your heart condition?"

I think back to that hot day on the roof when it happened.

"A few months ago, maybe early July."

"Yes, yes... And since then you've been having trouble performing your job function properly?"

"That's correct. Can't lift what I used to."

He makes a few marks on the sheet attached to his clipboard.

"Okay. So, since early July of this year, you've been having trouble performing your function. Sound about right?"

"My job function yes."

More marks on the clipboard.

"Alright, great. Now, if you'll follow me into the room behind me..."

That was quick. Relatively painless.

Gordon opens the door and allows me to go in first. This room is huge and long, and pure white. So bright I can't see what's at the end. My eyes hurt. I hear the door shut behind me.

"Just follow me, Peter."

So I do. Gordon walks down this endless white hallway. Finally we get to the end, where an elevator waits. An intercom system is installed in the wall next to it. Gordon presses a button on it.

"Peter Levins. Age: 53. Preexisting condition: heart disease."

"Preexisting condition, what?"

I tap Gordon on his shoulder but he ignores me and continues.

"Unable to perform function since early July, two thousand and thirty one."

The elevator dings. Two large men in suits walk out and grab me.

"Wait, what is this... What is this?"

One of them hits me, square in the side of the temple. Things go fuzzy and black.

I come to strapped to a table. I try to break the leather straps but it's no use. A doctor to my left taps a needle. Gordon stands next to him.

"What is this? What is this!?"

I shout and scream and yell hard and loud as ever.

"Relax, Peter. I'm a retirement planner. I'm here to help in your transitional period."
 
I have not joined. How do I join?

Tomorrow
Tomorrow I’m packing my bags

And I’m leaving

I’ll be back sometime between now

And never ever ever

So don’t hold your breath

Because I’m getting the hell out of Dodge

Putting this place in my rear view

Blowing this popsicle stand

No more maybe

Or will I, won’t I

I’m saying goodbye to this old ****hole

And saying hello to my brand new shovel


Subconscience
“I’m allowed to write whenever the **** I want,”

Oh, don’t curse, that makes you seem dense!

She’s got nothing to flaunt.

What the **** is this guy doing, it’s common sense!

What does she think I’m thinking?

I hope this guy doesn’t pick me out of the crowd.

Oh my God now I’m thinking about blinking.

Holy **** shut that baby up, IT’S SO LOUD!

Of course, the perfect comeback comes to me now.

Wow, that was a messed up thought.

Is that all this cat will do is MEOW MEOW MEOW?!

Enough already with this lecture, I’ve already been taught!

Wait, why did I come into this room?

Don’t even touch me right now, I’m hungry and craving.

Why is he wearing that, is that a costume?

How many of these thoughts should I be saving?


I remember this conversation
I have a really good idea

Seriously, write this one down

Are you listening to me, Leah?

Let’s ditch this town

I want you to meet me

Four A.M. sharp

Under our make-believe oak tree

Bring ski masks, matches, and that old blue tarp

The why doesn’t matter

Are you worried about our responsibilities or our getaway plan

I’m worried about the latter

Because I’m not sure I can drive your dad’s moving van

Do you want to run away?

Because this is totally for real

Okay, maybe another day

Maybe another day we’ll
 
Atomic number 6
We’re all walking in a straight line

So we all finish up where we began

Secretly I believe my atoms are mine

Hang onto these bits of me as long as I can

Read a science book and now I’m aware

That each and every carbon bit

Is only me for a fraction of a hair

I’m jealous of my emancipated particles I admit

Because that’s less of me to drag along

New parts replace my old pieces

Guess I’ll keep walking my whole life long

Until my straight line race ceases

Xanax
Cut to commercial

19.95 for a home gym

Spending habits inertial

Lights in this house dim

These days I’m so impulsive

Too difficult to think of consequences

My odd behavior compulsive

This tiny orange plastic bottle, bottomless

I’ll just take two more

Once down the hatch

A new commercial to adore

20 dollars for a vacuum, a small one to match

Call the 1-800 number

Another purchase on my credit card

Hang up the phone to slumber

‘Take one before bed’ written on my prescription card

Tragedy
And she said to me

“What a tragedy,

it’s such a shame

what we became.”

In response I said

“If we looked ahead

would we have caught sight

of our last goodnight?”
 
Dark Ring Seriously?
I just think it's creative.
I didn't really read based off the title.
Titles can sometimes be misleading.
I could put a cheery title on something sad.
 
Masks part one
Ten thousand tired evergreens surround me in a circle. I reach my hand up, gripping the scaly surface of the branch and pull. Dozens of green needles dance around me, tickling my skin and sliding off my mask. I wonder what they feel like on my face. I stick my dirty fingers up through the bottom of my mask, feeling the curves of my cheek, rubbing the grime in. Slowly I reach my hand up to the base of my head, glossing over the waxy string holding my mask in place. My fingers slide over the knot. If I could just loosen it a little… I grip the end of the string with my index and thumb. I can hear the distant bellow of St. Luke’s—I was going to be late for mass. I forget about the sleeping green giants and my mask and dash off to the temple. Ten thousand tired evergreens skip by me.

Tired and hot I open the door to the temple, brushing myself off as I enter. I can see my mother in her green dress standing in the aisle, looking for me. Out of the slit of her mask I catch the glint of her eye.

“Where have you been? Look at you…” she scolds me. “Just look at you.” She says, wiping dirt off of my mask, unaware of the mess underneath. “Go, sit.”

I sit down in our usual spot in the middle of the right section. A familiar old woman sits next to me, facing forward. I study the side of her mask, bright and shiny and ornate. She must be a wife to a congressman. The gaudy and delicate features of her mask contrast my mother’s and my own, all off white and patchy and tired. To my right sits my younger brother, his mask similar to my own. He taps the outside of it. I take a peak at the back rows and I can see the tops of heads and the tips of masks, black and fading. Undesirables. The have-nots.

My mother takes her spot next to me, and with full attention to the front, joins in with the hymn.

Supper time. There isn’t much conversation these days. The empty chair at the head of the table was loud enough, usually. I can hear my mother breathing between bites under her mask. Mine begins to itch.

“Why do we have to wear our masks, momma?”

My mother coughs, and wipes her mouth with a cloth. “Because that’s how things are. You wear your mask to show your place, boy.”

“Why does that old lady get a shiny mask, then?”

“That old lady is worth more than you or I ever will be, boy. She’s good and famous around these parts, you should darn well know that much.”

“Why is she famous, momma?”

She sighs, exasperated with my ignorance and youthful curiosity. “She’s the wife of a congressman, baby.”

“So why does that make her special?”

She shoots up, suddenly tense. She points at me, her hand shaking. “Now you listen here. You don’t ever ask about our masks or hers again, you understand that?”

I cower in my chair. “Yes, momma.”

She holds her ground for a bit, then loosens up again, sliding back into her seat, readjusting her mask.

My own worst enemy
I’ve got these self-destructive tendencies

I feed off my own popularity

The pharmacist to my drug dependencies

And a slave to familiarity

Sometimes I wish I could change

But really I don’t

Because I’m afraid of the strange

So I guess I won’t

k
Listen Kalee I’m going to hit the hay

We’ll talk about this another day

No more arguing, I’m through

I think you have read too much into

Text message received: “k”
 
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