shrink and disappear

in the bathtub with scores of spicy tall candles++ my ancient little gas heater
cozy as a happy little fetus in the only warm place++ this drafty old house
i tipped some wax from my candle into the honeyed bath water
(it blobbed up in red shiny clumps and) said
‘you should read nothing but anais nin for seventeen days’
far be it from me to question that kind of authority.

a character study on a friday night

Her glasses were cat-eyed, of course.

She entered the small restaurant with a ding-ding and walked straight through to the cash register in the back. It was a thai restaurant but had a diner feel to it, the way the fluorescent lights were too bright and the only music was a soft drone of something indistinguishable coming from the kitchen.

She came in out of the drizzly rain, of course.

The short man behind the counter asked her ‘can I help you,’ of course.

She thought ‘sigh’ but said ‘I placed an order.’ The man went to grab a paper bag near the kitchen.

She was coming from work. Friday night. At long last. She was going home to her little green maple street shotgun house and her fuzzy puppy named Eliot, of course.

She looked down at the bottom of the counter where a million shoes had kicked the oddly chosen light blue paint, then over to the table of students attacking a small plate of spring rolls.

On the wall was a photograph of several preteen asian men in matching outfits with a pastel backdrop in a gold frame. Outside there was some lightening.

‘Here you are ma’am’ he said and she handed over some money out of her patchwork shoulder bag.

It was coconut soup, of course.

to: you

Thanks to everyone who still comes here to read. I really appreciate you all. I've resolved a few things, not necessarily for the new year, but just as well.

I am going to start writing everything under a nom de plume from now on. I guess it was pure narcissism that kept me from doing that before, but I need to be careful as I transition from the world of globetrotting on my own handful of dimes to (hopefully) globetrotting on someone's payroll.

So I picked one, and I hope you like it (let me know!) I picked Lucie because I once had a dream that I had a little girl and I named her Lucie, and Peacock is a family name on my mother's side.

Also I have decided to start submitting again, bc I've been scarcely published these past few years. I am going to try to submit a few pieces a month (I know that's not a lot, but its more than the 3 pieces I submitted in the past 9 months).

I hope everyone is having a fab 07.

suburban holiday

merry christmas y’all come
on inside

white zin showers and

credit card burn-
out of the ‘Cold’
because the game’s on
the =big as the interest rate=
television
and the rice crispy
treats
are cooling on the oven

70% off designer shoes in gas puddles with milkshakes and pop piano ballads on the FM

and it was 2007 minutes in heaven
with a champagne chaser and

remote

control