Tag: drabble

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I want a warm love. When someone hides their tears it’s sweet to look aside, but when they are open with their hearts, exposed and suffering, just being present can be warmth enough. Being present doesn’t look like sitting in the same room, idle, and it doesn’t have to be fawning, attentive, even; but acknowledgment. I want a love that says I see you, I hear you, without my own machinations or implications or assumptions being painted over your face and soul. I don’t want to replace your soul with someone else’s or use you to wring out closure from my own hurt, but you. I want you.

I want a warm love that feels like sunshine, like the change in weather when it’s been too hot or too cold and finally a breeze or frost comes to shake things up. A love that feels like relief and excitement.

I want a warm love that tastes like sitting on a kitchen counter and someone puts their fingers in your mouth to show off what they’re cooking.

I want a love that eases the knot between my shoulders blades that feels like a vault door being locked tighter and tighter, closing off a cold room in my ribs.

I want a love that doesn’t ignore. Or prioritize. Or shame.

I want a love that doesn’t force me to change size, to take up less space, to shrink and quiet like a mouse; I want a warm love that feels big and growing.

…

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cut from a longer project,

A word of caution on the wind

the heroes among you all have sinned

A pack of lies come for a price

he sold his honesty for vice

and lies he now in death’s throes

and made of lovers mortal foes.

where once skulked life it lies dormant,

missing as the soul’s informant: the heart

not granted yet dwelt in despair

of a promised future that is not there

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He came to the door and knocked against the screen. 

“That you, Chief?”

“Well I’ll be goddamned, Spinner?”

“How are you doing, old man?”

“Oh, Christ. Don’t ask me that,” He laughed. “Lee Spinner, my god. How have you been, boy?”

“Good, sir, good. I heard you were out here on Tamp and I said, by god, he finally sold the place on Wincrest.”

“I did, I did. Almost ten years now.”

“Well shit.”

“Where you been, Spinner?”

“Did thirty, sir, you may recall.”

“Is that so?”

“You may recall.”

“I was sure you would have gotten out sooner.”

“Well I did, sir, but then when I got out I just went an’ did it again three more times.”

“You did, Lee?”

“Oh yes, sir. You wasn’t fire chief anymore then.”

“No, I suppose I wasn’t.”

“What happened, sir?”

“Oh, I had to get out, Lee. Terrible business with a family of six. The whole house gone up.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, sir.”

“That’s all right, Lee. Shit, nothing to do with you.”

“I appreciate that, Chief, I appreciate that. I have to say, I’m sure glad to see you.”

“Well thank you, Lee. It’s nice seeing you.”

“You sure about that, Chief?”

“Of course!”

“Well gee, Chief, that’s awful nice of you.”

“Anytime, anytime. You get to be my age, all your friends dying off, I’ll tell you, I appreciate a familiar face.”

“Gosh, sir.”

“You want to stay for dinner? My oldest comes around in about an hour and brings me supper. Sundays is chicken.”

“No, sir, I really oughta get going, I just thought I’d stop in and say hello when I heard you was out here.”

“Well I’m glad you did, Lee. You don’t burn any more barns on your way out.”

“I’ll do my best, Chief. You know me.”

the red king

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“At the height of winter, a great king sat with all his men and, seeing the famine of the cold months, held a feast. But at the feast, one of his knights thought it was wrong to lock out the idea of cold rather than confront it. So he sought to make a pact with the spirits of the season. He went above the head of the god of bargaining, he went to Time itself to request a change. Just an ordinary man. He traded places with the god for the winter, but it was all too much for him, and he found that things went much the same. He became so preoccupied with running the world that he forgot his original purpose there and was swallowed up by it.”