The House my Father Built: Part 8

When I was finally able to pry open my eyes, panic tore through my head. The fear from the night before claiming my mind. And then I felt it. Even before my eyes could register the sun hanging in the sky above us, I could feel it. The rise and fall of his chest. All …

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The House my Father Built: Part 7

It was the shivers that finally forced me awake. Racking me with wave after wave of spasms that consumed my whole body. I screamed, desperate to prove to myself that I had survived. As I saw my breath rising into the night air, relief washed over me. Warming me more in that instant than any …

The House my Father Built: Part 6

The cold cut through me like a knife.  Colder than when mother had disappeared in the snow, colder than anything I’d ever felt before.  I can’t remember now if it was the cold, the force of hitting the water, or maybe a combination of both, but all the air blasted out of my lungs in …

Soft Green Leaves

Soft green leaves that hang in tired trees  Waiting for the Fall

Calm Before a Storm

Soft silence swam through those quiet moments.  Drifting through the air before the storm.  It trembled in every shallow breeze, cracking softly as the clouds gathered high up in the sky.  Minutes later it would shatter in the torrent of wind and rain.  Thrown far away by the howling gale that ripped and tore its …

The House my Father Built: Part 5

The day things changed started off like any other, I suppose.  I had gone quite a ways down the river, humming to myself and getting lost in the usual memories of father and mother.  The sun had started high in the sky but had since begun to fall back toward the horizon.  The setting rays …

The House my Father Built: Part 4

That first week was hard. Much harder than I’d like to admit now. I struggled at first to build even a tiny fire alongside the creek to cook my silver fish, but after a few days following the river I had it down. I would start by scraping off fresh wood shavings that served to …

The House my Father Built: Part 3

I set out by following the creek past the spot where father gathered his clay and out into the unknown. At first I did it just cause I didn’t have any better plan, but then as my hunger grew it became a steady source of fish. I would wade in up to my ankles and …

The House my Father Built: Part 2

We didn’t talk much after that night.  It was an uncomfortable silence that would hang in the air whenever we were together. I worked to fill that void.  Little tasks around the house at first, but after a time I roamed further out to keep that silence at bay.  It was after one of those …

24 Hour Dreams

Mother was with me on the plane But I don't know where she's gone off too After they chucked me out with the rest of the fruit I wandered to an archery range  They filled me with prickly quills Then I ran to catch a taxi I have to make 42nd and Broad Theres been a mugging  …