I sat on a wooden bench that someone had attempted to create for lounging comfortably. At least for ten minutes at a time. Stuffed in between two of the wood pieces next to me was a cigarette butt. I looked a little closer and shook my head. No. There wasn’t enough left to get anything good out of it, so I left it stranded; a reminder of the smoker who sat here before me. I looked up at the green leaves that sprawled over my head hiding the bench from the hot sunlight that wa

Eyes were shut to the world, but I was awake. Trying to delay the start of the day. I heard a slight scratch and opened my eyes to see Dog sitting by the door scratching the wood frame and watching me expectantly. “Yeah yeah, I’m awake Dog”. I pushed down on the footrest of the faded recliner with my legs; pushing the orange blanket off to the side to fall in a messy pile on the floor. I stood and grabbed a shirt that had been tossed carelessly over the back of the recliner a

I opened my eyes to see the tall grass swaying above me; the orange sky above it. How many times have I been here now? I was so exhausted that I didn’t jump to my feet to try to desperately to make it to the town I could never reach. Instead I continued to lay there gazing at the sky and allowing myself to enjoy the lack of physical pain in my prematurely aging body. This dream allowed all of the body aches of the previous weeks to drift away. Or was it months? This time was

A groan fell out of my mouth as I thudded to a seating position on the hot gravel and waited hopefully for a wind to cool the sweat that ran down the side of my face and into the rough hair that grew around my chin. No wind came. I sighed audibly to no one and watched the trucks speeding past my resting spot. I could almost see the thoughts behind the wondering eyes of the drivers as they thought, who is this idiot sitting on the side of the road. I tugged at the sleeve of my

There was nothing but a hollow feeling as I walked down the clean paved road and away from the home of the man who died. If I was waiting for an immediate change or shift in myself, some kind of revelation, that would turn my feet and send me running back towards the empty house behind me, none would come. I was still a shell. An empty host who was still waiting to feel something remotely human. My body slowed and I stopped moving; standing in the middle of the empty road. An

I died today. I found myself slowly falling back to the earth, feeling weightless as I floated down and down, stopping with a light thud