Whirr the gardener hears as he enters the laundry. “Bugger,” realising the dryer is dopey and running on cold again! Sadly, it’s still needed on this spring day! Click, Clank as he resets it, hoping for heat. Clunk as he picks a large bucket and exits. “Oh!” as he finds a rogue coffee mug on the nearby desk. Dunk! He places it into the bucket. The gentle spring wind seeps through the doors and caresses his body. Hmm, he w...

The Arab Spring was a misnomer. The word spring suggests hope, birth, renewal and life. Oh yes, perhaps that was the intention, but the reality was somewhat different. The stifling heat, the dust, the relentless sun which baked the earth to a cracked, hard shell, the subdued voices, the hollow faces of people who had lost everything, family, homes, villages and hope. These images are forever printed in my memory. My name...

Shaking higher the midnight hour letting the allegro roll no slow surrender keeping the wheels turning burning faster until the hum begins to rise like hands sliding up the curve of a spine finding its way to the hunger fingertips tracing the pulse the hollow of a throat tastng the salt of the big naught a rhythm you can’t escape of the silk unraveling like skin on a clock stretching into minutes shaking higher the midnig...

I was leaning back in my chair, drinking a coffee, and reading the online news. It seems that there are massive algae blooms in the sea due to overuse of fertiliser to grow crops to make bread to feed people. Reading further, I saw that it was in the Pacific Ocean, and my interest waned, and I turned to the sports pages. My phone rang. "Yup?" I answered, and I knew who it was as the phone had a built-in video, so I could...

This story is for the spring competition. I just love this time of year. Our carrots are fresh, and the sky seems bluer. The flowers are all blooming and are so colorful. The scent of fresh berries and greens fills the air. It's the time to start a new family. My wife, Bonny Bunny, really wants some young ones, and this spring seems to be the perfect time for us to have a little one. I see Sam Squirrel over there. I think...

I’m Annie, and I work at Nest Ventures. My email signature says Secretary to The Regional Director, though my official title is Executive Assistant to the Regional Director. This is pompous Americanism, which I despise, as I’m just a humble Secretary. I joined Nest two years after its creation, when there was already another EA/Secretary: Angela, though she was, and remains, in Seattle. Who I report to hasn’t changed; it’...

much the dew clinging to grass dawn’s breath on the clover diamond’s without gruff sparking the wind chimes in the autumn’s glades as the sun begins to climb a familiar face to see a hello a new day to live as you take the first day walk smooth and bitter in autumn Collaboration with Atticus Abbey

The leather seat groaned under Beau Lucifer shifting weight as he tapped nicotine-stained fingers against the armrest of his throne. A salvaged airline captain's chair bolted to a dais of crushed Cadillacs. Carrying the scent of the taxidermied dead in mason jars, Beau a master piece of sculpted grace reflecting the glorious light of his creator. Now a face of corruption in duality. a Highwayman of sins sitting on his ass...

It was a back room at number ten. Pictures of various previous Prime Ministers adorned the wall, each with the reigning monarch. The room was usually referred to as ‘The Royals.” Important meetings were held there, in camera, no records. Just like a meeting that had just got started. “I am concerned, General.” “Yes, Prime Minister, I am too.” “With billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars, the changes that we hum...

You said I miss you And I did not believe it I do not know what is the matter But I feel unlovable these days If only you knew how lovable you are How big of a mark you leave on me Like a jagged twisted bloody scar That I display proudly for the world to see You think that you are not missed? Why is it you do not understand? I would lay down my life for a chance to be kissed I would give you the world if it meant I could...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I always loved the poem by e.e. cummings that begins: “in Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee” ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cummings seduced me with his poems when I was in high school, and on into college. He was responsible for...

I wish I was your bottle of whisky So that being a heavy drinker you are You would consume me every time She says she wants to be consumed But I dare not drink her Because I am already doomed Maybe she was intrigued by some words that she read Maybe she wants just a glimpse into the darkness hidden in my head Maybe she gets turned on when I write and scream and cuss Maybe some day her and I will just become us Maybe... ju...

Beneath the neon lights in a room of a small motel, putting the hoodoo on me with your cat eyes and Mona Lisa smile. Listening to Conway Twitty on the electric radio and watching the way you smoked that cigarette, with your full lips humming. Sipping a cognac, with your fingers tracing my spine and the bedsprings singing a gospel choir. Testifying to our original sin between tangled sheets and bitten sighs. You whisper so...

They called him Oddball. His real name was Roger Bootham. It was a nickname given to him in school, and it seemed to have just stuck. Sometimes it was even spoken by the teachers. A name unwanted by Roger, of course, but if you asked not to be called that, then, well, it stuck for life. Children can be cruel. Children who grow up to be cruel adults. Now Oddball was twenty-one years of age, studying for a music degree at t...

Chapter 1: Victor Kane’s WorldKane Tower – 60th Floor Victor Kane did not read newspapers. This was not so much a principle, but a condition of his life. Anything of consequence was brought to him and reduced and rearranged into a condition that required no effort on his part. To him, reading meant uncertainty, and he had long ago removed uncertainty from his affairs. For this reason, when his assistant, Harris, laid a ne...