Untitled, actually


Cardboard walls surrounding me
Claustrophobia
Setting in
Recycled air
Flowing
Around the tiny room
And through
My lungs
Idly flipping
through the pages
Of outdated magazines
The silence is deafening
The tension suffocating

Labels: doctor, medical, medicine, office, suffocating.

Dream

I am running,
Escaping from a monster.
Fear gripped my chest
And I fell.

Labels: dream, falling, fear, running

Fearful Vanity

One mole
Odd-shaped
Malignant appearance
Scared?

15 minutes
3 stitches
1 week of waiting

And all I can think is
I don’t wanna lose my hair.

Labels: fear, fearful, hair, scare, vanity, waiting

Another Story that I've been working on...

Susie hid quietly beneath the dingy, blue staircase, listening to the thunderous roar of her fellow classmates’ footsteps passing overhead. As the roar of footsteps slowly faded, Susie let her tears fall once more. How could this have happened? Why would he ignore her? Susie wrapped her clammy hands around her legs, choking back a sob as she buried her tear-stained face into the soft, comforting fabric of her skirt. She should have listened…
“He’s only going to hurt you.” Darryl had told her. “He’s using you. He’s only after one thing.”
“You’re wrong.” Susie argued, even as her voice trembled slightly. “John would never hurt me.”
“What are you thinking? Open your eyes. Do you honestly thing you two are going to stay together after he joins the Navy?”
“I… I think we have a fighting chance.”
“Susie, This isn’t love!” Darryl growled, grabbing Susie by the arms. “It’s infatuation! It’s one-sided.”
“No…it’s not…it’s not.” Susie continued to argue, trying not to cry as she wrenched her arm out of Darryl’s firm grasp. “He loves me.”
“Stop it! Love has to go both ways. It takes equal effort. It’s obvious you’re putting more effort into this relationship than John. His priorities are askew! And if you don’t listen, you are going to learn the hard way. His priorities don’t include you.”
“Susie? Are you okay?” Susie was awakened from her painful memories by a kind hand on her shoulder. She looked up into the kind face of her close friend, Lucy. Susie attempted to plaster a faux smile onto her tear-stained face. “Honey, what’s wrong?” Lucy asked once more.
“Nothing.” Susie answered, though she knew Lucy had heard the tell-tale crack in her voice.
“We missed you during the advisory meeting. Where were you?”
“Here.”
“Why didn’t you come?”
Susie’s poorly acted façade fell away as she began to cry once more. “He… He was there.”
“Honey…” Lucy wrapped her arms around her distressed friend. “Ssh… it’s okay.”
“I don’t even know what I did.” Susie sobbed, letting her friend comfort her.
“Ssh… you didn’t do a darn thing.” Lucy stroked her friend’s dark locks away from her wet face. “He’s a guy. They’re weird. They don’t know how to talk. He’s probably just having a bad day.”
“So, he ignores me?”
“I guess, babe.”
“I’d rather have him yell.”
“You don’t mean that.” Lucy stood and dusted herself off before offering Susie her hand and helping her up.
“Oh, yes I do. At least then I’d know what I did.” Susie replied as Lucy escorted her to history class. “Lu-u-c-y.” Susie whined as they reached the classroom.
“Sweetheart,” Lucy put her arm around her friends shoulder, “Everything is going to be fine. Give him until this afternoon. If he’s being a loserheadface then, I’ll kick his butt!” Lucy giggled as she did a karate kick in the middle of the empty hallway. “And if worse comes to worse, Darryl can get Jose on the job.”
Susie smiled slightly. “Don’t hurt him. And let’s not tell Darryl about this… please?”
“Okie, why not?”
“He’ll NEVER let me live this down.” Susie knocked on the classroom door and Mr. Jones opened the door.
“Um.. Hello girls. A little late today, huh?”
“Just a smidgen.” Lucy gestured with her hands to indicate the small amount of time they had wasted. “It’s just been one of those days, ya know?”
Mr. Jones nodded wisely. “Yea I know.”

Labels: friends, hurt, love, Sincerely, Susie

Part of a chapter of a novel that I have been working on for AGES....


Cassie smiled down at her daughter who lay on the dingy blue carpet watching the fairytale wedding end of a film before turning back to her coupon clipping.
“Mommy! Mommy!” Emilie yelled, running across the small room to her mother’s lap, scattering the collection of multi-colored coupons.
“Yes, baby?” Cassie said, picking up her child and placing her in her lap.
“I’mma marry him!” She yelled excitedly, pointing to the handsome hero on the television screen.
“You are?” Cassie humored Emilie, attempting to hide her laughter.
“Yes.” Emilie replied matter-of-factly, snuggling into her mother’s warm embrace. “Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you married?”
“No, baby, I’m not.”
“Why not?”
Cassie remembered Wyatt’s reaction to her untimely pregnancy and his impending fatherhood.

“Listen… I can’t do this. I can’t have a kid.” Wyatt had explained as he drove down the dirt road towards Cassie’s home, the storm raging around them.
“And I can? I’m seventeen!” Cassie replied, desperately trying to refuse her tears.
“Yea, and it’s your kid.”
“I’m not the only one responsible for this, Wyatt. It takes two to tango, so to speak.” Cassie bitterly retorted. “We both have to deal with this. It’s our child. Not just mine.”
“No! We don’t have to deal with this! It’s your problem! Not mine! You’re the one who got pregnant!” He yelled, raising his hand and slamming it on the dashboard.
“It’s a child! Not a problem!” Cassie cried as her house pulled into view.
Wyatt stopped the car in front the derelict farmhouse. “Get out, Cassie. There is no us. There is no we. Never was. It’s your fault your pregnant.”
“How can you do this?!?”
“GET OUT!” He shouted. Cassie scrambled to open the car door. Wyatt reached across the cab of the red pick-up truck and slammed the door shut as soon as she was out. He sped down the old dirt road, gravel flying into the air as Cassie was left alone, standing in the middle of her driveway in the pouring rain. She slowly walked to the front steps of the house and sat down, wrapping her arms around her body before she stopped fighting the tears. She cried.

“I just never found the right guy. You have to get married to the right guy to live happily ever after.” Cassie answered her daughter’s question, pulling her small daughter closer to her body. “But our family is pretty great like it is.” Cassie kissed the top of Emilie’s curly head.
“Yep. Are right guys hard to find?”
“A little. But they’re supposed to be worth the wait.”
“Mommy, I’mma find you a husband. Then, we’ll both get married. On the same day. You can marry right guy. And I’mma marry him!” Emilie explained, pointing to the television screen once more. “Hey! Where’d he go? He disappeared!” Emilie jumped off her mother’s lap and ran to the television. “Come back you loserheadface!” Cassie laughed as she silently prayed that her daughter would never learn how men really did disappear.
The movie’s end credits began to roll and vibrant, happy music filled the air. Emilie began dancing excitedly. “Mommy! Dance with me!” Cassie put down her paper and put her coupons on the wooden side table before running across the room and swinging her daughter into her arms. The two spun around the room, laughter filling the house.

Labels: Daughter, marriage, marry, shooting, stars, teenage pregnancy, teenagers

Starving

The highway echoes with the sounds of our worn-down wheels.
We’ve traveled for miles, searching, wandering…
But we can’t find our desire…
We’re starving
Starving
It’s consuming…
Where is it?
We’re starving
Starving for home

Labels: consuming, home, search, starving

Candy Red Paint

I sit silently
Waiting
Painting my nails
With a third coat
Of candy red paint
Listening for a telephone ring
But all I can hear
Is Ellen Degeneres
Causing her everyday hootenanny

Labels: call, candy, paint, red, ring, telephone, waiting

That's right, I performed it. There was an Open Mic at the Masquers Coffee House here on campus last night.

Labels: arkansas, coffee, do, hall, henderson, house, Masquers, mic, not, open, performance, state, theatre, touch, university