m-i-n-k-k

It started casually. Eyes locked. A handshake. Hellos. But then they looked down and noticed his right middle fingernail fluttering away as the wind blew by. Oh, I'm sorry, he said as he hurriedly withdrew his hand, but stopped when he saw her eyelashes from her left eye whisk away like dandelion seeds on the very same wind. After sharing an embarrassed chuckle, they progressed. And then one week and a late night bottle of merlot later, the morning. Hey. Hey. Words she heard as he pulled her from slumber. Huh. What? I'm missing some teeth he said. She rubbed her eyes and looked and yes, indeed, he was missing a canine, a molar, and an inc

VII Not in the middle of the night when you're crumbling. Do it in the day. An unassuming day with nothing amiss and you'll call not because you miss me but because you've just missed the bus that passed you by. But don't request a ride. I've done enough by picking up my phone in the middle of physics. VI When you've burnt the brownie batch, and I'll buzz right on over with boxes of freshly baked baklava (I've never tried baklava before). Or when you're gliding through the grocery store and find there's a special on strawberry feta salads (I've never tried strawberry feta salad before). V If your cat catches a canary. Not when she's stru

Those children over at that table don't know how good they have it, I wistfully thought over my plate of pork-fried rice. My family and I were out celebrating my brother's birthday, and the group of six or so kids was seated two tables down from us. There, they divided themselves into smaller clusters so they could share the limited number of mommy-and-daddy's iPhones as they took turns playing Angry Birds, or Fruit Ninja, or whatever the popular game is these days. I was reminded of the countless times my cousins and I used to do the same thing when our families went out to dinner (except instead of Apple products, we had Gameboy Colors.) T

Victoria spotted the odd mask in the window of Lee's Consignment Shop as she strutted down the sidewalk. She was in the middle of a heels-snapping, bag-swinging, hair-flipping, phone conversation with her client when she froze, mid stride, transfixed by the face that peered at her among the display of watches, old guitars, and dusty paintings. Caught in the mask's trance, Victoria hastily and quite rudely ended her call, yanked the shop door open and gasped, "I need to see that mask in the window." She paused. "Please." Mr. Lee blinked and nodded uncertainly as he adjusted his glasses and shuffled over to the display to retrieve the item. "T

CUT TO: INT. SAM'S OFFICE – EARLY AFTERNOON SAM sits at his desk, blankly staring at his computer monitor. He holds a pen in his hands and a legal pad sits in front of him before the computer, but he doesn't move. He sits, and stares. We hear the ticking of a clock. We see the vacancy in Sam's eyes. The ticking escalates into mini booms of foreboding, until Sam's friend CHUCK appears in the doorway. CHUCK   Hey Sam – whoa, dude, you look like ass. SAM Tired, is all. CHUCK You're always tired, man. Haven't you seen someone about it yet?     SAM   Of course I have. But nothing   helps, nothing works.     CHUCK

He stood in line, tapping his foot anxiously, looking at his watch, checking his teeth in the reflection of his cell phone. He hated waiting in line, and on top of that, he was running late. He contemplated skipping his usual morning coffee when he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder and heard a voice behind him. "Hey," the voice said cautiously. A female's, he detected. He turned around to face this person, and her curious expression lit up in recognition when he saw her. "Wow, I knew it was you! I mean, I walked in and saw this guy standing here and I thought to myself 'no way, it couldn't be, could it?' And sure enough, it is!" she gaspe

I can gaze into these windows and I'm met with the curious expressions of ghosts,   shadows of our former selves and though I'm gripped with this feeling that I know these faces, Something whispers in my ear they are not you and you are not them. Are these windows mounted in walls so high and so thick that I'll never be able to break them? I feel these ghosts in the windows are memories or maybe they're parts of old souls tired, worn, broken -- but that Thing beckons me away from the glass and now I can detect its foul breath raspy voice telling me to Wake. Up. I have been summoned by the daybreak and I stumble thro

mocked, said the mockingbird, is what you feel, no? flitting above my desk she flips forward pages and reveals. does it seem ironic? asked she. indeed it does, said I. cruelly so that your month has your color? correct! was the shrill. I don't understand, wailed I. but she stood silently. eyes, infinitely dark, stared. said she, no one does. it's a tricky sticky subject, this. a sigh as I opened the window to set her free. but still she remains perched on my desk mocking me.

You left cigarette burns across my bed sheets pock marked holes scabs but they don't make sleeping any warmer. There was a warm breeze that blew through my hair until the clouds came in and cast shadows cold biting winds that took down my house. They say don't burn your bridges but it seems as if I never had bridges to begin with and they were only dreams. It was a cool day when I came to and a warm night when you left connections that trace the leaves which scatter across my front door step as I walked inside and didn't want to come out. A ghost. I share no words but with one who listens patiently and knows how to pr

We were going somewhere. My brother and sister, mom, dad, me, we were driving somewhere. The highway we were driving on was rather calm and undisturbed, passing mile after mile of wide, open fields of tall, golden grass. “Wait, I don’t know where we are,” dad said, which was unusual. He has never admitted to being lost in terms of direction and navigation. “Yeah, I think we’re lost.” “You’ve got to be kidding me,” said my mom. “I see someone up ahead . . . hang on, I’m gonna pull over and ask,” dad observes. We took a right turn and started going down a smaller road, and soon we