You wake up with a spreadsheet staring back at you, and it’s Tuesday. You tell yourself that there is more to life than LCD screens, Command Lines, Macros, and those rotten stacks of used paper. It’s all marked “shred” and you wish you could crawl through the slot. Little haiku poems run through your mind, you count the syllables on your fingers to stay awake. "Bulbous collared shirts packed into conference rooms, weekly blamestorming." "Though it’...

Their booth was far off to the left, in the main dining area.  The thought crossed my mind to fake a sudden illness and retreat.  I left sweaty hand prints on everything I touched, the counter, the chrome-accented stool, the shiny napkin dispenser that I scooted out of my space.  This has to be for real, why else would they be here?  Maybe this whole thing is a setup...a sting. Using their reflections on mirrored walls and polished accents of tables and booths, I watched...

  I rolled into Tucson with nothing on my mind. After driving for sixteen hours, I needed to get off the road and Tucson was where I landed. I pulled the old Duster into a Good Eats Here roadside dive just as first light cracked the dark blue night. I rubbed the crust from my aching eyes to see the time dimly lit on my dashboard clock. 5:47 am. As I shifted into "N" and pulled up the parking brake, I scanned my surroundings through blurred vis...

Human evolution, a wondrous spark: one thousand three hundred grams of horns, claws, venom, and tusks. Our egos fight like angry lions, tooth-scraped bone, wounding pride, balanced the power precariously. Merciless with sharpened stick we argued undeniable truths, and proved our sophistication. Found facing the absolute, we stood sneeringly speechless, and irrefutably mistaken. Unwilling to submit suggestions, we accepted to be told nothing; but it had to end sometime. Our disoriente...

Shadows cast on tonight's silence, Memories fade in limited spectrum, While you calmly take out my eyes. Leaving hazy peripheral images; Fragmented ideas hollowed out, The shells left behind by bullets. A broken light switch comes to mind, And a door knob that will not turn. Innocence shed like skin cells. Shameful details I won't remember, Denial scabs, clotted disassociation, A fever seizing infected thoughts. A thousand follicles fail to refuse Your frozen grasp on...

Perched under darkness you once distracted Facing into light with pallid flashes Without saying it I admit defeat Paralyzing fear keeps me in my seat Reality shorted emitting distress Crossed-wires soldered to delightful flesh I am insulated now disconnected Newborn nightly by hope reflected Digitally immersed ported out, remote, Eye-strained, snow-blind my sleeping days float Of being pushed out no regret or fear Because nowhere could be further from here.

  Do you remember the names I whispered to your essence as you, crawling from the brine, sought meaning for shifting clouds and assigned reasons for my mood?   In that moment holding close, I embraced your novelty, marveled at endless progress, endured the painful changes, as we grew farther apart. Secrets hid in mystic ruins, tempting you from womb to tomb. Old age made you an infant, While the sun burned with fever and every ocean steeped brown. I wrote names across the sky as yo...

Pipes scale walls in empty apartments, haunted by the spirits of people hung by rafters for sheer joy. But now we have a better way. The boredom within this instant contains endless centuries of progressive thought, each ending with a red-cone-blinking-light and a sign solemnly reading, “Dead End.” Instead, a single device offers peace in place of fruitless study and thought. It waits patiently, with dead circuits, powerless. When suddenly, light stretches forth, like wall...

Each hand played out with an empty gaze As we built this house of cards. I dressed for work, while you softly sigh, Your eyes are always half open. Machines replaced our most basic functions Installed appliances for our convenience. The light bulbs never burn out, the pipes never clog We stand on our marks, looking for direction. Actors in a play about the life we never wanted: To live the only American dream. Nightmares white washed by medicated silence, You sm...

From selfish needs a distraction hatches; this childish crisis to catalyze my doubt. Wrenching questions eroding our foundation; as frost creeps, opaquely shading windows. I abandon my self respect regretfully; watching this open sore blossom. Widely dilated my missing skin abscesses; blisters fill up with interrupted intentions. When I found myself infected, by repetition I was convinced, to be filled with only empty space, tossed and purchased anew. Desiring a fire for inspiration, ...