February 2012
1 post
3 tags
The Taste of Licorice
He thought about the women he’d dated the past few months. Winter was almost over. He flashed back to the one named June he dated in December, who never interested him with anything she said. The one in January named Dahlia who drew a lot, who smiled a lot, who looked too much like Her. And in February, the seamstress named Heather who knit sweaters, but had a cold heart and even colder taste in...
January 2012
4 posts
2 tags
With/er
He turned off the TV. The box had distracted them from the plethora of issues that sat in their living room, though their subscriptions had long expired. His thumb clenched the long black plastic, blood turning blue in his hands. The light flickered off the black, blinding him for microseconds at a time. As her lips softly opened, the controller fled from humanity, and into the crevices of their...
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11-10
“They’re fighting again.”
“Yeah.”
“Is it because…”
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure. They just do that.”
He sat on the bed, staring at the floor, trying to find the right words in the moment. Ben was only 6 years into their parents’ relationship. Brian had dealt...
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Django
She walked in with without the usual swagger. He noticed right away. She had been crying the night before. It wasn’t in her looks. Her face wasn’t done up in the usual way, although she didn’t look much different. Not to him. He saw it in her hands. He only noticed because he noticed lot of things about her. As she approached to order her coffee, he wrestled to get a smile out.
“Hey, how’s...
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To Do List (page 1)
Radio shook his keys to find the one to his house. Their house. A sense of impending doom loomed over as the shake shake shake of the metal picks sheckled through his fingers. Head down, he closed his eyes, and opened the door. He walked down the hallway to her, the same way he had done almost every day, every week of the past fice years.
“Hey,” he said as his eyes met those of his wife.
“Hey,”...
December 2011
7 posts
4 tags
Why I Love Working in Coffee
Yesterday, I was having a wonderful conversation with my older sister of 5 years. She lives in San Francisco, where I moved away from a year ago, and is one of my best friends. Seriously, the woman raised me into the gentleman I am today (Hey, I know I egregiously use the word “fuck” to no avail, but I walk street side, I open doors, and I always pick up the bill. That counts for something now a...
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A Goodbye
He tried to be a good person. But trial often leads to failure, and this time was no different. After a steady road, he took a hard look at himself and came to a conclusion. He was mediocre.
Mediocre in work. Mediocre as a friend. Mediocre in love.
He wouldn’t reveal his true self to anyone. He’d tried. He failed.
He was a burden, really.
In work, he was useless, a flatulent cock at work who no...
7 tags
Advice
While a close friend and I were spitting words at each other regarding the current state of our affairs, I projectile vomited this little gem straight into the toilet of their mind.
“So here’s the thing man: when we’re with the person who is going to be with us on an intimate romantic level, we don’t need someone who will help us carry our baggage because that’s...
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TV
They talked through the night. They didn’t know what it was supposed to be. He didn’t expect it. After all, she was working that night, and he was supposed to be having dinner with someone else.
Radio looked at her, her flannel button up draped over one shoulder, naked on the other. And she looked at him, caught off guard by his intense sincerity masked behind silly suspenders and...
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planes
Even with the music pulsating through his headphones, the weight of Nathan’s footsteps pounding on the people mover of Terminal 3 deafened the rhythms blasting into his ears like a depressing hammer. He looked at his phone to check the time, and with every minute that passed, he questioned what the fuck he was doing. He was happy. He knew it. Hell, only a month earlier he’d met the...
November 2011
3 posts
2 tags
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“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
– ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start....”
– Charles Bukowski, Factotum
October 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Heirlooms (pt. I)
It had been a month since they met, a day since they saw each other again, and an hour since he woke up next to her for the first time. Dylan didn’t know what to think. He looked at Miranda, sleeping. He saw so much of everything, and anything, he’d ever wanted. They slept together, but didn’t sleep together.
He’d only known her for three hours in person. But in the little...
4 tags
Delayed
He’d just gotten paid that Friday. He didn’t know it’d be a problem to take her out.
Her - the woman he was so impressed by, and the woman he wanted to understand. He didn’t know much about her, but from their conversations, he knew she was more than just another woman.
He remembered the first time – they’d waxed idiotic over a mutual admiration for Talleyrand. He wanted to hug her...
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Up Short (part I)
“You’re lucky to even be here. You know, mom was going to have you aborted. So be happy.”
“I love you so much, and you don’t even care. Mommy wasn’t supposed to have you. Aren’t you glad I did?”
“No.”
January 15, 1983.
That was the day Lawrence was born. 21 inches, 12 pounds, big as a watermelon, healthy as an ox. Ingrid was ecstatic to have him. Holding the newborn...
August 2011
11 posts
3 tags
High Heels (Formerly "Emily"/new edit)
While with an ex-girlfriend, I’d developed a friendship with Emily. She was the new girl at my high school, having moved from 40 miles west, and everyone wanted her. She had killer legs – gams that went so far out, you’d swear you could see the edge of the world from them. And she was nice – I mean, really, really nice. She talked to almost anyone who had anything to say, and ...
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“That’s all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right...”
– Raymond Carver
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i've never had a date in a library.
which is weird, because when i was a kid, the library was my closest friend. my lover even.
so Library, we’re going to reacquaint ourselves today. i promise. you’ve loved me too much, too long, for me to forget about you. and when i’m inside of you this afternoon, it will be a delight, and we’ll remember why we fell in love in the first place.
yup, i just wrote all...
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“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I...”
– Oscar Wilde
July 2011
5 posts
4 tags
photo by jonathen liu
found on a sidewalk. then in my kitchen.
4 tags
6 tags
More
I was sitting in a hotel room with the realization that my Wife and I were separating for good. There had been a possibility for reconciliation between the two of us before I’d left. At this point, I didn’t want to anymore. We had been through too many turbulent times together for it to work.
With my Ex-Wife, I had cheated for the first time. I think I was trying to find an out. Or...
8 tags
"Poking a Tree" (re-edit)
“Shit.”
I looked at the showtimes, and realized I’d taken her to the wrong theater. This was the first time I’d hung out with someone new in months. I needed to recuperate. Fast.
“Well, is there anything else you wanted to see?”
She wasn’t the type of girl you let down. Not with those eyes. I’d only known her a week, but in that week I was more comfortable with her...
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Isolation
“Fuck.”
He played the situation in his mind like a top 40 hit stuck on repeat. Everywhere he went, the familiar tune played - the same mistakes played. He’d lost all the other tracks. Now, he was trying to find them, to remember that he used to sing different songs for different days.
Wade had tried to keep going, but too many thoughts lingered. He wondered - about everything.
Just a...
June 2011
1 post
4 tags
you win
supposedly, there were a lot of beautiful girls there tonight. i didn’t notice. because all i could think about was dancing with you.
May 2011
2 posts
dream girl #2
She was there again. Our moment was the last thing I remembered, and the first thing I felt when I woke up. Her eyes, her lips, her hair. The way she gently rested on my shoulder, and her body with mine. It was so vivid, so close – it was real. Almost.
It was heart wrenching – these weren’t the wet dreams of an obsessive, testosterone crazed teenage boy – there were no elongated, ...
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Dream Girl #1
They looked at each other. They weren’t sure how long. Didn’t matter. Her hand rested close to him. Not that close, but close enough. Enough for him to know that she was someone he wanted to be with because he was scared. Scared of her hands being as full of sweat as his. Scared to clutch her fingers for the first time, because then he’d know more. About her, about everything. Even if he...
April 2011
8 posts
4 tags
Watchbased off the following short story,
“a simple hello”
by Jonathen Liu
i stood at the threshold of the platform in the underground, waiting for my train. the j was running late again – it was always running late. it wasn’t like there was anything i could do about it. the j was the only way i could get to work without beating my hooves. and there’s a reason i was overweight. i...
6 tags
Day 6: Coming Home
The first 5 days of the trip were exactly what I wanted them to be. I had to get out. Clear my head. And I did just that. I wrote earlier, that San Francisco will always be home for me. I still think that.
I’d dug myself in a pretty deep ditch in LA. Emotionally. Which made life difficult. I was pushing people away, and I’ve never wanted to do that. But I had this pitiful...
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Day 5: Friends After Divorce
I had dinner with my ex-wife, Amira. She’s this wonderful person who I spent 5 years of my life with. At the end of our relationship, though, Amira and I realized we weren’t meant to be together. At least not for the rest of our lives. Amira’s always said that we were meant to find each other, our happy ending just wasn’t ever going to be together. We just realized...
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Day 4: A Random Day In Oregon, But Shit, Nothing's...
I hopped on a train after drinks with Tom and went on my way to Oregon. I always loved Oregon, and I still do. If you’ve never been to Oregon, it’s just…well, it’s just magical. I don’t care what part, so long as you’re not on the back roads. Even then, you’re okay. Unless you hate trees. Then, y’know, never go.
The magic on this trip...
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Day 3: Ruins & Old Friends
My 3rd day back, the Sutro Baths were calling. The Baths were a public pool that burned down in 1966, with the ruins being the only reminder that this was a place flowing with people more than water. To get there is kind of an ordeal because it’s on the coast of San Francisco, and you gotta ride the 38 all the way to the end. But once you get there, you know why you made the trip. ...
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Day 2: Home Is Where The Heart Is
I woke up in San Francisco, today. The same way I had almost every day for the past 5 years. It was a familiar feeling. Although there was more excitement to the view my eyes were taking in than in the past. Because I don’t live here anymore.
I used to think the saying, “Home is where the heart is,” was so contrived and full of shit. I never got it. Now I do. Because I left my heart in...
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Day 1.Prt. II: Coming Home
Thank goodness for headphones. And thank goodness my friend lent me a pair (I’d told myself not to forget my noise canceling headphones – I always forget something) because otherwise I would’ve had to endure the couple from my nightmares for two hours. Not that they stopped being annoying. Every time I took a picture, an immature giggle busted from the rear of my seat. Thanks to...
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Day 1.Prt. I: Getting Out Of Dodge
A few days ago, on a whim, I decided I was going to get on a bus, get on a train, and just go. I didn’t know where I was going, and I didn’t know what I’d do once I got there. The only thought in my mind was the word, “go.” So I worked my last 2 days of work for free, with the promise from my Boss that He’d pay me in cash on my last day so I could get on a train, and get out of Dodge. Los...