literature
Whether written centuries ago or just last year, literary couples show that love is timeless.
Another Day, But More Dollars
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, I start each workday being groggily awoken by my alarm clock that goes off two hours later than “normal,” but still feels like a slap in the face. Once I’m awoken I always depressingly mutter “another day, another dollar.” Since I’m only waking up to work so I don’t get fired and to get those rent and fancy sweatsuit dollars.
By Michelle B.5 years ago in Humans
The Greatness of a Nation
The sun did not come out on Wednesday, and people had begun to whisper. It was becoming increasingly difficult, for some, to ignore what we saw and what we heard. Nevertheless, today was Thursday, and the sun did come out, as was told to us. I was coming home from work, after stopping at the store, carrying the cranberries and the green beans. The turkey would be almost done by now, I knew. I walked to punch in my code for my building, which was guarded by thirteen armed escorts, and, as per mandate, carried my bags on my left arm in case my right hand was needed for fingerprint identification at any time.
By Rose Rossi5 years ago in Humans
Scratchy Scarf
The faint beeping in my ear and hushed voices around me confused me. Where was I? Where was the sound of my fiance snoring beside me. The comforting weight of my cat on my legs. Wait, why couldn't I feel my legs at all. I opened my eyes to a searing bright light and gave my eyes time to see what was around me. My heartbeat sped up and a buzzer went off. I was surrounded by people all covered in hospital blankets and unconcious. Some looked normal. Some didnt even seem human. I felt the blanket across my arms and saw I wasnt an onlooker. I was one of them. The ICU UNDECIDEDS. The shadow people. The people all having the worst day they'd ever had. So muchfor being special. We always think we're better, and then life stomps us into the dirt and we realize we're no better than the rest of humanity.
By Jordan Parke5 years ago in Humans
Expensive Misconceptions
‘Morning Hugh’ ‘Morning Felicity’ ‘The usual?’ ‘Cheers.’ Felicity pays at the counter and waits patiently for the coffees to be made. She leans against the bench beside the coffee machine, flipping through the pages of a newspaper, feigning an air of nonchalance. Every few moments, she sighs loudly at something she reads, then looks over to see if the barista is watching. He’s engrossed in his work, pouring the drinks with precision. When he’s finished, he reaches over the machine to hand the two takeaway cups to Felicity. One with a lid, soft tan foam bubbling out of the sipping hole, the other lidless, nestled in two cups so that Felicity doesn’t burn her hand. As she takes the drinks, Felicity smiles and nods to thank the barista for this thoughtful gesture, taking it as a sign that he recognises her, notices that she’s wearing makeup and styled her hair, notices that she’s buying a coffee—like she does every day—for the lonely old man who sits outside the café writing in his notebook.
By Alexandra Svoboda5 years ago in Humans
A Night of a Thousand Stars
I remember when I was alone and cold. Especially in freshman year of college, you were there across the hall from me, wearing your baggy sweats, with your imperfectly perfect bangs, complimenting your beanie. There you were, listening to that song, KANON. The way the chords complimented each other, how peace transformed into thunderous harmony. Every key turned into you. The look you gave me. The look you saw from me. Was it the same look? I don’t know. I remember how the song complimented your blue eyes, how it rushed and flowed like the ocean, never ending, never standing still. How can one possess the power of the ocean? How can one like this exist? How beautiful how tranquil, how never ending.
By Joshua Alejandro5 years ago in Humans
Dollars < Sense
She was at that corruptible age where duplicitous friends and family were not yet revealed to her in their adult form, yet their sugar-coated malice could be faintly detected along with some bitter note on the tongue. This was the bitterness Faye Holbrook soured her petite and beautiful—if not somewhat precocious—face at, along with the sweet, sweet liberty that a $20,000 inheritance can bring to a 13-year-old girl from a low-middle-income family, if used properly. Of course, the dollars she inherited were trivial compared with the good sense passed down from her industrious parents—who respected the teenage hunger for responsibility to equal parts fun—colored with their own impoverished, naïve worldview when it came to the serpentine dwellers of the inherently wobbly branches of the family tree.
By Greg Evenden5 years ago in Humans
A Friend In Me
I always had a huge imagination; along with that imagination came a friend that lived inside of it. My friend would always tell me good things. She would always guide me to weird places, and I would always find great things in these places. I never second guessed my friend, because she lived in my imagination for so long, and she became so real to me. My friend inside knew that I had a million things going through my mind, because that’s where she lived of course.
By Justice Sinkler5 years ago in Humans
Up the celery slide
I walk up the celery slide into a fancy hotel, and there's a guy with a towel tied bandanna-style over his face. He asks an employee in checkered shorts something I don’t hear, and the employee leads him into a hotel room up the stairs, where he hands over a suspicious package wrapped in brown paper to a house-elf wearing a tea towel. I follow because I want to see how chlorinated the water is. I notice the bed under a ceiling painting of Elvis ice-skating on a frozen pond next to a fruiting pear tree, is rumpled. I drink the water out of a bar sink, and it tastes ok.
By @choosethesmiles5 years ago in Humans
A Subtle Itch
“You should be ashamed of yourself!” he yelled at her, thinking he had gotten her off the gambling horse, until he found her stash of scratchers under the utensil holder in the drawer. It was one of the few times he helped to put away dishes, and he noticed that the drawer was a little hard to open, since the container was touching the top. It wasn’t supposed to touch the top…
By Ariana GonBon5 years ago in Humans
