Preamble: first person plural narrator, dramatic voice, turns into a first person scene that reveals character.
The times are strange, and the ways we kill ourselves even stranger.† In the course of a year we will lose our lives in the hustle of our failures, and find them again in the well-aimed spit-wad of fate.† We [...]

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(preamble: first person narrator, distant, focused on image, fierce)
Walking between a highway and apartment rows,
back when the city was a stranger and shadows unnerved,
I paused across the street from a boy.† He stood and faced the road
eyes wide and glistening, arms outstretched,
holding the body of a dog — he must have been thirteen –
looking down, [...]

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So I sit here in my kid-bed up beneath the ceiling and I think about love and how it has no reason. I also think about you, and how maybe you have no reason either. I certainly don’t. And maybe I should not say love. Maybe I just like you. [...]

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The one thing that I should probably tell you up front is that I have not done one remarkable thing in my entire 42 years of life.† If you were to ask me to write my epitaph right now (does one ever write one’s own epitaph?) it would say:† “John D, he was here”.† I’ve [...]

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At first it seems easy; it always seems easy at first.
Then your left foot starts to twitch and you can’t concentrate on the book you’ve been reading
And your hand reaches instinctively for the computer. Just to see.
No, you say, and turn off outlook so you don’t have to hear new messages arriving.
You keep reading, [...]

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“How strange to be in love,” thought the sparrow to herself and let out a sad, melodic sigh.† It was mid-morning and she was perched on the highest branch of her little wood.† This wasn’t very high at all, but she enjoyed the sunshine up above the trees.† She also liked to be the only [...]

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W– is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has some swearing, a little drug use and a brief implication of violence, but no nudity, sex or murder. The rating seems to reflect, above all, an impulse to protect children from learning that people are lonely and that life can be [...]

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1. no more than two “incidents” a week
2. no communication on weekends, holidays, or when either party is on vacation, unless agreed to by both parties
3. only clever and positive missives whose primary intent is to convey information are allowed; occasional jest is acceptable
4. no written communication longer than a paragraph except in cases where [...]

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