You change so gradually you can’t distinguish the individual steps.
First up you buy a silver belt buckle and then four years later people in your neighbourhood just refer to you as “the Cowboy”.
Honey?
She started saying to me “At 9:09, I’m gonna do something that won’t hurt me, but it will hurt you.” I woke up panting, relieved it was a dream, but the clock read 9:08, my wife woke up.
Fear
A lone figure stands, unmoving atop a bridge. She reaches for the rails, and places one leg over, the rhythm of her heart blaring in her ears.
Founder
Man I can swim so well now that I keep hoping for a boat to founder and then we have to swim back to the shore and then you’ll think I’m awesome!
Want to come out on my Grandfather’s totally safe not old at all boat with me?
Thank God for ivy
This old wood fence needs fresh paint; but, ah, the ivy begins its gentle climb. Maybe the paint can wait.
Future
A flicker of the future for you.
A dim light, a soft bed, a weak tea.
Death bed
A husband is sitting at his wife’s death bed holding her hand while she is under the influence of morphine and she is mad, not knowing who the person is, because she cannot open her eyes but hears and feels his touch. After ten minutes her anger subsides and gives way to fantasy that the person holding her hand is a childhood love who has come to say good-bye.
Stranger
Silhouetted by the silvery moonlight, he was tall and wore a long overcoat. What he was doing staring up at me as I watched from my high bedroom window, I did not know.
Theft
I bought the aged sofa and set it out on my veranda, ready for a good summer.
In winter, while throwing it away, I found the earring she accused me of stealing down the back of the cushions.
Love and Life
Hand in hand the young lovers strolled along the beach, reveling in the clear blue sky, feeling the kiss of the sun on their nearly naked bodies, admiring the sea gulls and pelicans, and appreciating this perfectly spoil-free day, when they stopped to embrace and exult in the wonder and beauty of all that life had to offer.
Then they spotted him, lying at the edge of the sand dunes, his eyes closed, with his arm extended, the syringe still protruding from his bleeding veins, and it was at that moment that their innocence was stripped from them much like life had been stripped from the young drug addict.
Valentine Lick
We swapped chocolate love hearts and smiled like naughty teddy bears. I’ll lick yours if you lick mine.
Never Alone
Being buried alive is bad enough. Not being alone in your own grave is worse.
Sweet feeling
Let’s do it one more time before that sweet feeling fades.
C’mon, bruise me!
Eating out
I’ll have the gourmet socks with a side of yarn and a glass of cotton.
Eating out is the best.
Poison
We found Mary dead in the morning and jealousy raged through the house for the rest of the day.
Jules, being the wasteful fool as usual, swallowed damn near a kilogram of arsenic although we told him that wasn’t Mary’s poison of choice.
Future
Had a firm grasp I thought – I wonder if he liked it? I just hope I get passed the initial interview.
The bodyguard
A wannabe bodyguard’s goes to the rich man’s house for an interview. He finds him lying in his own blood.
Experimentation
She enjoyed sexual experimentation.
Eventually there were few sections of the supermarket she could walk in without feeling turned on.
Goldfish
Round and round I go.
I am the Goldfish explorer.
Angel
The angel stared down at the blistering desert.
There was so much going on below it didn’t know what to look at first.