incidental interaction

©Zoe Wiseman

he made me a drink as i gladly accepted and went up to my room to read and wonder, wander the pages, searching for the spot in my mind where nothing but the words are allowed.  the stories of the mishaps flooding the headlines creep in, mixed with the voice of my beloved music man with the power to make the world disappear.  he sings to me regardless of my dedication to the focus at hand.  voice enveloping my mind and diving in to my soul.  


"every time you get a drink
and every time you go to sleep
are those dreams inside your head
is there sunlight on your bed"

the one man i can crave without remorse, the one that i have no desire to actually have.  i hear you reading and know you're watching in the silence of your darkness, that place where she can sit beside you and hold your hand and make you forget that you already forgot who you are.  it's terrible love, when the waves of monotony become habitual.  here we are again.  same damn circle.  excuse me sir, this is my exit.  time to get off.   you already missed your turn...

neglected

© Michael Cordiez- Rossland, BC

learning new things about new people has become the most enjoyable part of my day.  listening to those seemingly innate conversations between him and her about this that they dare not say louder than that.  the education of the little one who seems to be in complete control of all that surrounds her.  she wants one, so just give it to her.  round and round the circle fly the cars that used to be so grounded.  faster as they spin off track to the collision course of the imagination that leads to the place in the beginning.  back where they began to see that it really never mattered.  there's no place i'd rather be.  you know.  that place called...

skip, hop, jumping to the next thing that's on the agenda.  the never ending list of to-do.  growing anxiety ridden piece of paper with the chewed off edges.  you finished that one, didn't you?  i thought i knew the answer to the last question but than i realized that the words that i thought were in order no longer made sense. and that damn knot is back again, the one that crashed the last car.  speed bump. road kill.  off to seek the magic man.  he has all the answers, even to those that have yet to be asked.
what do you want to know?

consequences

© Candace Smith

losing myself in the world of a 4 year old, i bounce on the trampoline mindlessly.  giggling and forgetting about life, reality, responsibility... until he asks me to show him a trick.  my mind freezes as i feverishly try to come up with something that would interest this little man, that he may never have seen before, that i can still pull off without the fear of adulthood in the way.

i've never been one to be afraid, never hesitate when asked to jump out of a plane or off a cliff into the ocean 50 feet below or hang from a tree that could be my last.  all of these things i've volunteered for actually.  yet this moment when i bounce closer to the ground than any tree i've climbed, with memories of backflips and impressive acrobatics that would wow any 4 year old, i'm stunted.  i'm caught in my own self doubt, in my own hesitation, in the place in my brain where i'm no longer invincible.

that place where tinkerbell's fairy dust wears off and i plummet to the earth below.  oh tink, why'd you have to let me go?

sense of consequence...

some of us have it.  some of us skip that part of adulthood and just continue life as if nothing else matters.  this is all there is, so why think past right now?  for every action there is a reaction and its not always pleasant.  that's why we have health insurance.  that's why we say 'I'm sorry'.  that's why we think before we jump.  right?

so, i showed him my best back flip (from the starting position of on my knees) and he was impressed.  it doesn't take much when nothing but the little things matter.

forgotten

© Doug Doyle

lost stuffed teddy bear found on highway side
wonder who would leave him behind
cruising with the yellow birds 
listening to the singing praises as they preach
perched on the sil of this here window-
washer watching
what they whisper loudly, telling all his secrets 
and leaving the lost lover where he lies, under his starry night

Alice feel asleep again as she thought she watched the second hand
drifting off to merry dreamland 
'Just don't change a thing', she thinks, 
as her ring changes from blue to pink

the sleepy field mouse looks strangely like that rat
those beady eyes glow in the dark as dreams change to 
nightmarish...


Pause. Rewind.

the erasure begins to unwind 
the faceless hands 
of times twisted sense of mind.  

go back to sleep young thing.  it was nothing more than a bad dream.  

tossed aside

©Michael Cordiez

~special guest- Stephanie Anne

thrown off course when the navigation died, the thing that provides such comfort in times of need

swerving to avoid the puddles that envelope the world above and below

ditching dodges as the hole filled vacancies begin to grow

when there's nothing to listen to, the noise of the globe seems deafening in its silence

you're too smart to remember the way it sounded before the quiet, this still place

timeless, in its lack there of

coated in windless memories, singing softly behind the mirrored images of the long lost seashells

the approaching tree, knocked over in a fit of fury

it had to go when its time had come, riddled with poison and ready to die

the only thing tossed aside

still

©George Pitts

I don't want to be a distraction
I want to be the carnival, he says


subtracting the glowing lights of the monotony 
and the cacophonous circling of that last one
filling the hole with rawness of the prickly perfections
leaving the lost of the languid lips licked


as the rambling digresses into the soft swirl of 
the merry-go-round, we spin in the direction of the sun
hands extended, connected, clasped as one 

inception

© Brad Wilson

one thought can transform your reality
one idea dropped in the wrong place in your mind
   swirls life as you know it, out of control
one memory held too tightly sends the rest of you to drown
swimming in circles, til the circles swell and swallow
the world around you may not be real
what do you believe when the dream is reality?


"You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You can't be sure where it will take you. But it doesn't matter - because we'll be together."


Christopher Nolan is a genius.  see the movie and watch it again.

tipped

©CNirvana

half full

empty

future past

baby candace and her little sister, 1980

"I have this theory that I'll die someday, so I don't want to miss anything" he says.  


the soldier, sailor, artist, daddy repeats to himself in front of me.  which job is most important?  which will be the most remembered?  which is the most important to him?  all that really matters.  "there she goes my beautiful world"  nick cave is a magician, a poet and a dream creater...   i wait patiently to meet his little man and capture the moment of daddy with his new shadow, partner, flesh and blood.  those seconds are the things that never die.  


today i went to breakfast and sat in a diner by myself, listening to really great 50's bands and music that makes me smile.   when i left, i gave a single dollar to a man on the corner.  he responded with the most genuine heart felt smile i may ever see.  i've felt that endless, unrequited love before.  i've seen that look in eyes that have no home.  


that moment, i will keep forever.


that smile, may have changed me as a person.  i need that hope.  i need that need outside of myself because without that... thing, the little thing, we are self involved pigs that swallow our own souls and die alone.  without that moment of hesitation that stops us on the street corner, life itself may be lost.  don't lose that moment.  it may be the one right before the bus full of fat people....

the past

© CNirvana

~amber g. in the sun...

yesterday i fell out of a tree.  it was my choice.  technically i jumped but was afraid to let go.  i fought the tree and the tree won.

yesterday i got some really bad news of the worst kind, but is was given with a grain of salt and taken with an exceptional amount of hope.  perspective is all we have when there's nothing left.  perspective is everything.

yesterday i went to bed early after a long and chilly day.  today i woke up to the sunrise and the rain bouncing off the roof in a pattern fit to dance to.  yesterday is gone.  learn from it.  leave it.  move on.