Posts by araffi

They floated through his mind upward into the ether in a natural pattern like the curl of a chameleon’s tail, or the spiral of scales on a pinecone, or the ripple of sand in the wind. Nine words. Lyrics laid over a chorus of vibrating strings. “I should have asked for help moving the piano.”

Every day as he left home for school, Richard would say goodbye to all eight dining chairs. Patting them lovingly as one does a loyal pet on their way to an unenviable task. On weekends, he would be sure to slide one up to the large window. He’d say it was so they could feel…

She made her own clothes and wore plastic forks in her hair. She reminded me of my grandmother’s cat. Not the imaginary one, the one that got sucked up in that tornado in ’62. Her apartment always smelled like overripe oranges, and she’d recite that Carrousel Tune poem by Tennessee Williams whenever we played Canasta.…

Of all the treasures that have been discovered, this is what was rescued. This artifact. A memory that can’t be auctioned off. A relic scared by nostalgic happiness.

That morning, amongst the smell of gunpowder and burning Diesel, we realized that the only people who cry louder than these wounded children for blood, vengeance, and desolation are the old men who order the killing of their fathers.

He looked up into the stars and smiled. “Our only job is to show them that the walls that surround them are an illusion.