• WHEN

    When the expected finally happensyou may feign surprise, or evenmild anger or some disquiet,but all will know it is only an act. When the expected doesn’t happenyou may be truly surprised,of even angry and frustrated,and all will understand at some level. When the unexpected happensthe full range of emotions is thenlaid open before you and…


  • YOU ARE INVITED

    I have to compliment you,after all you ignored mefor four years in high school,condemned me to the outcasts,the geeks, the losers, the barelytolerated and then only whenthe Headmaster was watching. I didn’t go to your parties,no one without an invitationever dared, was left to theclubs no one wanted to join,but I have to say I…


  • SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY

    1. And itshould come asno great surpriseIsaac Newton said,“I find I nowprefer to sit beneathpear trees.” 2. In his smallLeningrad apartmentIvan Petrovich Pavlovcursed ,”damn dogs,you bite meevery timesomeone ringsthe doorbell.” 3. Schrodinger shoutedat the PETA protesters“I’ve told youagain and againthe catis also alive,just don’t look.” First published in Defenestration, Volumee XVIII, Issue III, December 2021


  • WITHIN WITHOUT

    Today I pausedand had a conversationwith my mind, and found itremarkably enlightening.It wasn’t a terribly long talkfor I quickly ran out of things to sayand I would have swornit had heard them all beforeand anticipated me fully.In the end though,I did have one advantageand simply got upand walked awayand that caught itwholly by surprise.


  • THE LIST

    I am compiling a list, ever so slowly, of places I still want to visit, and you may be surprised to find that Paris, London and Madrid are nowhere to be found. It isn’t that they lack beauty, charm and countless things to see and do, it is simply that they have been usurped by…


  • KEYS

    He sits, suited in black, with 88 keys at his command, and we fall silent. He opens the lock of joy, the lock of sadness, the lock of elation, the lock of tears, the lock of laughter, the lock of darkness, the lock of light, the lock of surprise, the lock of compassion, the lock…


  • IN VISION

    As you slowly approach it it grows perceptibly larger. This does not surprise you, for you are familiar with the principles of physics. What does surprise you is that the details grow ever less clear as you approach, as though they retreat under your slow advance. You think this strange, wonder what has gone wrong,…


  • AMOUR

    A voice clear, jazz straight up in six strings with no surprises, but sitting next to my wife and lover it is what an evening wants in much the same way as a night in the heart of winter demands spooning beneath the blanket pulled up to our chins the outside world, having ceased to…