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Michael Murphy Jun 2023
When I was born my father was 100% older than me
He was 40 and I was brand spanking new

In ten short years, I was 20% as old as my old man
He was 50 and I was 10

It increased to 33% when I was 20, but I was too busy to think about it

I believe I told him when he turned 80 that I was finally half his age

I wonder if I had told him that I would be 99% as old as him if he lived for 4000 years; Would that have made a difference? Would he still be here running the race?

Probably not. Who wants a kid that's the same age?
I think there were many times when my dad wished I would stop talking
Michael Murphy Jun 2023
The gun barrel burned into her temple, still hot from the two shots he fired into  the wall.  Lydia lay naked on the bed, paralyzed.  Tears clouded her vision.  Fear blocked all feeling, noise, thought, pain.  Time stopped.  Literally!

A bright light from the archway to the hall filled the room.  Lydia lifted from her bed. Walked without walking into the light.  Back in time to her family home, four states away.  She sat in the kitchen of her youth across from radiance.  A glowing figure, not a man, not a woman, just happiness.  

Without words Lydia knew she had made the wrong decision. She always was uneasy around Jake, but she thought he would change if she just loved him enough.  She heard that voice, that we often hear, the first time he asked her out.  She ignored it.

Suddenly the room began to spin.

"Lydia", Jake hesitated, "I was hoping we could get dinner sometime?"

Lydia had to catch her breath before she responded, " I really don't think it's a good idea, I'm sorry!"
I was thinking if it would be possible to take multiple paths in life just for the experience.  Maybe intuition warns us of a mistake we might have already made.
  Jun 2023 Michael Murphy
Mike Hauser
This old skin
Is wearing thin
The longer it sits
On this skeleton

And the longer it sits
The wrinklier it gets
Yet there's still some fit
So I must not be done yet

While some spots hold tight
Others hang loose
My epidermis I find
Hasn't a clue what to do

As it does it's bit
The looser it gets
One day I believe
It'll sink past my knees

Then maybe I'll tuck
It into my socks
And buy bigger shoes
For my skin that hangs loose
  Jun 2023 Michael Murphy
Carlo C Gomez
Technological giants

We learned early

How to command our angels

To ascend higher than our sins

They offered us immortality

In exchange for our planet's wealth

And naturally

We signed on the dotted line

Like spies selling

Secrets to the enemy

But here we are now

With the well run dry...
!YOU AGAIN!

Your summer dress
comes to rest

upon the balcony

hung up on a thin
wire hanger

(an exotic bird)        

it cries for your body
weeps at being

parted from you
& your curves

a pool of tears
collects at its hem

as longingly it dreams of
the touch of your skin

asleep now
in the sun.

Later that evening
frightened by the approaching storm

it tries to escape
the clamour of its hanger

almost flies off
beyond the reach of my hands

run away to sea
seeking for further horizons.

I calm it
tame its panic

fold it tenderly

carry it like a dreaming
child

lay it to rest
at the foot of the bed

where all night long it sleeps
at your feet

awaiting your footstep

the sunshine
of being

you
again
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