Love
Fare Thee Well, Basket Face
You see a guy at a coffee shop. He’s simple-looking. Nice hair. Good build. Impeccable forearms. His face is featureless, save for the fact that it’s made of interwoven wicker. No one seems to notice, but you do. What’s he doing in a coffee shop, you ask yourself. He’s got no mouth to drink coffee with. But you think little of it and dive back into the spreadsheets emblazoned across your laptop screen. Maybe that’s why no one else seems to notice him. They’re all preoccupied with their stresses and their relaxations, and the man with the wicker face is just another petty absurdity that cannot be dealt with today.
By Steven Christopher McKnight4 years ago in Fiction
I Want You to Rest in Peace
To the man we used to call Hershey, I want you to rest in peace, but it's hard to comprehend. My mind used to be filled with upbeat melodies and beautiful song lyrics that painted sunflowers above my head and that would make me dance as if no one was watching. I was carefree, almost too much sometimes, that I was uncontrollable, but now I'm sad dark poetry, too delicate to believe that the loss of you would be one sad day, and rather convinced that I'd been enslaved to it for the rest of the time I have that for some reason you didn't.
By Shyne Kamahalan4 years ago in Fiction
"Don't Tell Me Twice" Chapter Eleven
“Hey, can you pour me a beer?” Buck asked a skinny woman that stood in front of a nearby keg. Finding out that Ziggy and Viola were related had come as a shock to her, and she wanted to find Spike and Jemma so that she could talk to them about her newfound knowledge.
By Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue4 years ago in Fiction
Love's Greatest Journey
Jenna was a calm spirited girl. Her eyes were golden brown, filled with the tears of her past trauma and heartache. Her thoughts and feelings were fueled by the disappointment and trauma of those who she loved dearly, but had not returned that same love to her. Her curly rose gold hair fell to her shoulders like a calming ripple in a beautiful lake on a windy day in the Fall. She was alone, whether she was in a room full of people or sitting quietly, reading her favorite novel that sat on her bedside table. She always felt alone. She searched for purpose, searched for the love that she knew she deserved. She had family, but none of them suffered with anxiety and depression as she did. As a child she was victimized by a family member who stole her sense of security, and stole her innocence. She looked for love in all the wrong places and believed truly that she was broken and would never find someone who genuinely loved her. She decided that maybe the years of abuse that haunted her would disappear if she moved as far from the city where it happened. She thought just maybe if she left there, that new friends, new experiences, and new love would finally find her. But little did she know, those things would follow her, and this is how her new story would begin. Despite her skepticism, she journeyed with her life possessions packed in her car, including her beautiful cat and her lizard to a new place where she would start fresh. During her car ride she went through a series of emotions. Anxiety, excitement, sadness, happiness, and despair were all hitting her at once but not for herself - for the people and way of life she had left behind. Being 850 miles away from the place she called home felt like a sweet dream, and a beautiful nightmare. She kept repeating to herself during her journey “ You are strong, you will be ok, anyone you love is a phone call or a plane ride away, you can do this!” Upon her arrival, she carried all of her things into her new home. It wasn’t much but it was absolutely perfect for her to begin her new life. It was a manufactured home that set on a corner lot in a very nice community. The outside of her new home was sage green, with white trimmings. There was an adorable patio adorned in beautiful pink and orange Hibiscus plants lining the front, with 2 wicker chairs and a table. She walked in and set her things down and looked around. She was home. Over the next few months she would go through those same emotions she went through on her journey to her new life but most of those days were filled with happiness. She loved to explore her new city and loved meeting the local people there. The only downside to her new city was that it was one affected by the pandemic that had taken over most of the World in just a short year. Many regular attractions and ways of life had changed over the course of that year, so adjusting in a new environment with a new set of Government mandated guidelines was a task in itself. She pressed on. Her new home was really close to the beach. Her previous home was in an urban area, so she didn’t normally go to the beach there. She quickly took advantage of the beach being so close to her new home and found that it was her new place of solitude. She could go to the beach to laugh, cry, sing, scream, whatever she felt. There was a certain calming effect the crashing waves had on her, the feeling of the warm sand on her toes, and the beauty that she never knew she was missing.The sun hitting her rose gold hair, the mist of the salty ocean water gently coating her face and the feeling of the cool water rushing over her feet as she stood in awe of what her golden brown eyes were seeing. For weeks on end, she continued to go to her new place of solitude.No particular visit was better than the one before but still, she found great solitude there. Whenever the trauma from her past became too much she would run to the ocean for comfort. Every single time she went, the ocean delivered what she was hoping for, until one day as she was standing in the same spot she had stood months and months before, she felt a wave crash just a few feet from her, and she felt something hit her foot. At first she thought it was a piece of debris from the ocean, but she bent down to get a closer look, and much to her surprise, it was a little black book. She reached down swiftly and grabbed the book, just before the ocean tried to take it back. Just as she stood up after retrieving the book, her cell phone rang. Shaking the book off as it had just come from the Ocean and was wet, she refocused her attention to her phone. She looked to see who was calling and it was her sister. She answered the phone, grasped the book in her hand and walked back toward her car. She kicked the excess sand off of her shoes, got in her car and threw the little black book on her front seat. Looking at the book while on the phone she could see that the pages were all stuck together, so she would give it a couple of days to dry out before trying to open it and see its contents. She sat there for a few minutes talking to her sister. Her sister was her best friend. Every time she needed a familiar voice, an opinion without judgement, or a shoulder to cry on, her sister was there. After hanging up the phone with her sister, she headed in the direction of home. As soon as she got home, she got out of her car and retrieved her keys, forgetting all about the little black book being in her front seat. She went in her house and then began prepping dinner. For dinner that night she decided to go with her favorite meal, salmon and rice. Since she was new to the area still, and being in the midst of the pandemic, she still hadn’t met any friends. For the next few days she stayed home, enjoying the peace she never knew she could have. While dealing with her every day anxiety and depression as well as a debilitating chronic inflammatory illness that caused a great deal of pain, she spent most of those days talking with her friends and family in her hometown online, eating her favorite snacks and binge watching her favorite shows. She fell asleep in her bed, snacks around her, her cat cuddling her, and had a dream. In her dream she was walking along the beach, no surprise that the beach was a part of this particular dream because it was such a new, important part of her life. She was walking along the beach and saw a woman, sitting on a blanket, clenching something to her chest, crying. Jenna had always had such a sensitive heart when it came to others. Her whole life she always cared and loved others, putting their wants, needs, and feelings before her own. Something inside Jenna wanted so badly to console this stranger, but something stronger inside of her gravitated toward the object that the woman was clenching over her Heart. Jenna, who wore glasses that were perfect for her usually, had to squint to make out the object. As she focused in, she saw that the woman was clenching a little black book to her chest. Without wanting to disturb the woman, Jenna continued her walk down the beach. As she got closer to the Ocean, as soon as the mist hit her face in her dream, she woke up. As soon as she woke up, her dream, which was so very real, reminded her of the black book she found at the ocean just a few days before! With a sudden sense of urgency, Jenna jumped up, grabbed her keys and ran to her car. Somehow, the little black book she had forgotten just a few days earlier in the front seat of her car, had been remembered. Being that the book had been on her front seat for a few days, it had dried out and the pages were no longer sticking together. Jenna brought the book inside and sat down. As she sat down, flipped the cover open, she saw the following:
By Dani Sunshine4 years ago in Fiction
Me Lydia and Trees
I stood against the fence with my hands in my pocket as I watched the other kids laugh and talk together. I let out a sigh of exhaustion. I was tired of my life of this entire situation. Suddenly there she was, Lydia she's a good friend of mine; she has always made it known how much she cares unlike all the other posers in this place who say they care but really couldn't give a crap. She approached where I stood smiling her pink full lips showcasing her off white teeth perfectly.
By Miya Gwynn4 years ago in Fiction
Words I Can't Say
Today, I saw you. We hadn’t laid eyes on each other in well over a month. There wasn’t a single word shared between us in just as long and still seeing your face brought me so much peace. Slightly awkward at first, like the introvert who has to speak publicly before their peers, yet still familiar and comforting like a fond memory. I do well with keeping my feelings at bay, but when you look at me and smile, I am swept away like sand on the shore.
By Nicole Negron4 years ago in Fiction
Love, Death & an American Guitar.
The morning sunlight glistened off the window and two wild staring eyes lapped up the beauty of the 1967 Fender Telecaster guitar through the large pane of glass. The instrument had been hung in the window of Swan's music shop for several weeks now. Saul had been saving up every spare penny to buy the instrument.
By Phill Ross4 years ago in Fiction
