Mindfulness for those who would rather not
Emma
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” Billy laid in the forest with Emma, and Emma sighed a bunch and dug her paws into the earth occasionally and nuzzled herself a little bit closer when Billy’s scratches paused. When the scratches stopped she pushed her nose at him, and Billy would scratch a little more and…
Read MoreAn Old Start to an Old Story
When the fires started they started in the nice houses of Kaleden, a small brush fire lit by a homeowner in the kindling dry month of July that spread up and over the neighboring hills, carried along by the grasses of the grassfields dry and brown and engulfing a home nearby, flattening that home to…
Read More
No Poetry
I have no poetry anymore, nothing to follow my footsteps from coffee shop to coffee shop to the Wordsworth bookstore downtown, not even a downtown really. No fluidity, nothing staggered. I used to own some stuff by BP Nichol and stu-stu-stuttered when I wrote and when I walked thinking about words and the sounds of…
Read More
The Lady of Bark Lake
At the end of the road and the end of the driveway and then further into the bush and further along again along the trail that passed the cabins on the south side of the lake and then just beyond the ruins of the cabin around which so many ghost stories began, William and the…
Read More
The Boys
“Why aren’t you two sleeping?” “We are.” “No, you aren’t. I can hear you goofing around up there. Don’t you lie to me.” “We’re not mom. We’re just getting ready. William has to brush his teeth.” “Go. To. Bed.” William and his adopted cousin William sit still on the floor of their bedroom and watch…
Read More
The Untitled Document
Teneya and Billy in bed in the morning, Teneya with her leg draped across those of Billy and her foot tucking around his ankle, moving softly over his feet and her head on his shoulder and her fingertips spinning through the hair on his chest, lowering to stroke his stomach. Her body is young and…
Read More
A Story From a Friend, millionth draft
The skin between my toes has disintegrated, raw and stinging as sweat and miles of movement rub them against one another. The cold too, the cold doesn’t help. Running through the snow is slow and as it continues to fall so the slowness will grow. But this can’t wait so I hurry. When Jim first…
Read More
In the Morning
Billy opened the sliding screen door and the young dog bolted out and turned and stood waiting. The old dog was the one Billy had on a leash so that it’s knee could heal, and they stepped gingerly out of the door and onto the earth and started walking around the house and up into…
Read More
Bury Me Alive
Promise to bury me alive not deeply, and only from the neck down Just a thin layer of rich beautiful soil to pin my body against the earth in a forest that’s far away and then just let me be I will be alright Leave my senses in full bloom so I can witness the…
Read More
Writing Through Depression
You know what sucks? Depression, that’s what sucks. Each day, even in your brightest moments, there’s a gadfly buzzing around your head. Think about going through your life with every experience tempered just slightly of happiness. It’s an isolating task, and one that ensures you are alone in a crowd with the distinct awareness of…
Read More