A tattoo on your back

That lasers can’t touch

An itch underneath your skin

That can never be reached

A scraping, tugging, and ripping

Of your soul

Healed but never whole

Whole but never holy

A broken temple

Where prayers go unnoticed

A shame you’re ashamed

Who are you now

Fear not

Move on, forward, continue

You are golden

He was doing it again. Scraping the wrong side of the toast with butter. And jam. Is there a wrong side to toast? She didn’t care. She believed that there was, and that’s all that mattered. The scraping continued to echo through the apartment. Fuck this. All this anger, over toast.

But it wasn’t just the toast. It’s never just toast. It’s the unkempt fingernails that remove any hope of evening desire. It’s the shoulder-length hair that he refuses to tie up, much less clean up. It’s the Monday through Sunday TV dinners. Unless there was toast. Maybe it is the toast.

Whatever.

It’s insanity. Even if it wasn’t, it was the safest assumption. 2 years of scraped butter jam toast. It’s not too late to get out.

But what if it’s just the toast. Who’s to say the next person won’t have a different type of bread to deal with. She sighed and continued their morning ritual. With heavy eyebags, a backpack, and packed lunch (TV dinner leftovers), she nodded him goodbye and drove to campus.

1. Pick up kettle corn on your way home. Watch a favorite movie. Grab a warm blanket.
2. Put on headphones, pick an album you haven’t listened to in a long time. Dance.
3. Walk to the local park, place a blanket down, and breathe.
4. Re-read old letters and cards from family and friends.
5. Invite a friend over, pour some champagne, and talk about anything and everything.
6. Hug someone you love. For longer than usual is perfectly acceptable.
7. Talk to at least one stranger today. Even if it’s just a simple hello.
8. Organize one part of the house that you’ve been avoiding.
9. Leave a genuine thank you note along with a tip on your next meal out.
10. Visit the library. Spend the day reading random novels.
11. Try out a new work out routine.
12. Visit a new coffee shop at the other end of town. Pretend you’re a tourist.
13. Practice photography. Upload to social media or your online journal.
14. Visit the beach at night. Lay in the sand. Listen to the waves.
15. Throw pillows and blankets in the back of the truck. Drive uphill. Watch the stars.
16. Cook something new. Make sure the recipe has a high rate of success for first timers.
17. Grab flowers. Clean your tub. Draw a bath. Throw in the flowers. Jump in. Feel fancy.
18. Have a bonfire. Make s’mores. Or hotdogs.
19. Sharpen your crayons. Color a few pages. Don’t worry about staying in the lines.
20. Climb the roof and watch the sunset.
21. Smile.

“It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive…

His eyes saw the yellow gravel and the grey walls, and his brain still remembered, foresaw, reasoned–reasoned even about puddles. He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world; and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone–one mind less, one world less.”

Every person sees the world in a unique way. When someone dies, it is the death of an entire world.

The reality of grasping intangible welcomes
from the monkey that hangs and smiles to clap

You deserve more than just the invisible yellow cake
from fruitful animal labor stuck to the hollows of my cheek

Who does this wood belong to? The stick
stuck in flowing stone of ages past long ago

I have no intention of breaking the broken
to fill the empty weapon that longs to extend

To teapots and bowls where tablecloths roam
you tap your bubbly finger once and twice

Calling the king to see reflections in my eye
Yet I sit and ingest wondering what you are

Afternoon calls to riches beyond clouds where
infectious water pours deep until frozen

The gut of my stomach refuses more
Where is the sun in this morning’s journey

Everybody’s got their own opinion of
How it’s all coming down
So maybe I’ll tell you this because
You pretend that you’re pretending
To care with that
Sub-liminal smile that
You smile

So what
Feed them soon because
They won’t stop barking and
Every animal deserves a last meal before
We par-take in our last laugh here with
The static of our teleprompter behind

Dys-functional family minds
They tell you to quiet down your thoughts before
The police trample into our humble a-bode
It’s not like they need our surface space to
Keep cleaner air before gasping

It’s up to me says the paper because
We all know you’re passive aggravated and
My fool-ish holiday gift of a fountain pen talks for
You like no other day than this

Maybe It’s fun because we’re accustomed
With quilted comfort and empty regard
There isn’t much to offer but our watching e-yes
So lend me your teeth cause there
Isn’t much left before

N
u
k
e

N
u
k
e

N
u
k
e
–

Slip and slide french fries
I love the greasiest of all finger tips
When ranch just isn’t enough
Barbecue just might do

Flash frozen burgers
That’s the spot
Nugget after nugget
I can’t get enough

Stretching the Washington
The bang for my belly

Ta-ta to cooking
It’s too overrated
Just take me to the drive-thru
It’s the hip thing to do