• TO BE OR NOT TO BE

    The spider sits on the transomover the front door waiting, tryingto decide if it dares attempt entry.Others of its kind have, neverto return or to do so crippledand it knows a five or six-leggedarachnid would not be longfor the world it is trying to escape.I doubt it knows the risksthat lie within, a cat who…


  • WANDERER

    He wandered into the labyrinthin search of what he could not remember,perhaps sudden enlightenment, perhapsa haloed monk, perhaps his history.He wondered if Buddha wassecretly a saint, if he could bea working man Buddha, if anythingreally mattered, if there was no exit,if there was a way out and at what cost.He hated the silence, knew that…


  • AND TONIGHT

    This should be Paris, he thought,dancing alone in the Tuileries, orEngland, looking down on the Thamesperched atop the London Eye.This was how he imagined it, nottrapped in the madding crowd, everyonefrantically multitasking, searchingfor nirvana or a release from boredom,from the quest for monetary meaningthat had trapped them in a maze withno exit or end point,…


  • SADNESS

    He never stopped to take noticethat his anger had given wayto a deep sadness, onehe felt had him trapped, searchingthrough the pain for an exitfrom a place he never imaginedhe would leave willingly.He had promised her a lifetime,a statement he took as a truthnot considering that her promise,whatever it had been, had becomeviolable, the pain…


  • IN HIDING

    What is it she is hiding so assiduouslythat she always shields one face whilefreely offering the one we already know.And why all the coming and going, whynot just be like her cousins, alwayspresent until the final moment and thenmaking a grand exit for all to see.She knows she pulls on us, on ouremotions, we mark…


  • TEMPUS

    The clock chimed the hour.How long had he been here,inside the works of the great timepiecemarking imagined units that had meaningonly for him, for all, for no one?He knew his time was limited, alltime would someday be depletedand then what — that was the questionno one dared ask, everyoneanswered. Time was a mazethere was no…


  • HORIZON

    He was always lookingto the horizon, as if tomorrowwould provide some small hintof what was to come, knowingthe shadows of yesterday wouldalways be trailing behind him, hisalbatross of unfulfilled dreams.He knew it was a futile searchthat he was wasting his presentfor a future that would arrive on its terms,but compulsions were things hehad been powerless…


  • YOU ARE HERE

    You find yourself nowhere, and notin the middle of it but on the peripherywaiting for an exit, unsure howyou arrived here or why you stayed.This could be a wonderland but there isno rabbit hole, and the cat curled in sleeplying at your feet has never been to Chesireand says she has no desire to ever…


  • ON ITS HEAD

    Death has an uncanny knackfor turning normalcy on its head.My mother was never readyat the time my parents had to leaveeither selecting outfitsor jewelry, the right shoes,as my father stood by fidgetingand looking at his watch,knowing better than to say anything.Yet she left without notice,no delays at all, just suddenly goneso unlike her to make…


  • STAGED

    At the moment of your birthmy son, I grew suddenly older,mortality became a realitythat I could no longer avoid. You could not imagine this,and I doubt others could seebut I knew and the infinitecollapsed inside the event horizon. Your brother came later, butthat death was incremental,a single cut among thousands,a step on a path you…