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Charlie Chirico Sep 2015
No one in town knew his name. Generations have passed on, but he was still there. All they knew was the little house on the corner of Brindmore Street. It was a house covered by nature, once thought to be inhabited, but that was far from the truth. Edward Trake lived there; alone and delusional Edward was becoming claustrophobic.

He was now eighty-nine-years-old and had been a resident of the town More for eighty of those years. He worked in More, got married in More, settled in More, but never had children in More. His name would eventually die out, just like his marriage did when his wife Linda knew he was sterile. He forgave her after some time and heartache, but always thought of how things could have been different if he was able to conceive a child. He loved Linda; they got engaged and talked about children, both fond of a family life. After two years of trying they both decided to see a doctor and fix any potential problem. Linda was in full health and in her prime, Edward however was not. He was told he could not produce a child. A month later Linda left.

Linda eventually re-married and had the kids her and Edward had dreamed about. And although Edward was not the man to deliver Linda’s wants he became another father figure in her children’s lives. He became Uncle Edward and was involved in their lives as he would have been if they were his children. The only problem was that they weren’t his children. He was glad to be apart of their lives, but to him it felt like owning a house and sleeping outside. He had the convenience of being in their lives but nothing else. He could not help in their development, because at the end of the day he was just an outsider. Uncle or not he was nothing.

The last time he saw Linda or the children was one of the last times he left his home.

The argument started after Linda’s husband, Allen, had yelled at their seven-year-old Patricia for coming into the house covered in mud. Patricia was in the backyard playing house when she decided to make “mudpies.” Edward loved Patricia’s imagination and often fed into it, but her father was a strict man that lacked in creative thought. To him she was being disrespectful and needed to learn a lesson. The problem: Allen had his idea of discipline firmly cemented, which were lessons brought through physical contact and emotional suffering. Edward didn’t approve of smacking a child, whether they were wrong or right. He knew Linda felt the same way, especially after previous talks of future children they came to agreements on discipline. So, out of respect for Linda he felt that he had a right to step in. He thought the title of “Uncle” meant he could express opinions. Unfortunately he was wrong. After a few years of marriage Linda lost her right to have an opinion as well. Something about one being meek and something about inheritance.

“She was just playing, Allen.” Edward yelled over Allen’s intimidating voice.

“Mind yourself when you’re in my ******* house,” Allen screamed back, directing his attention to Edward. “This is not your child and you have no right to say anything. When you have your own children you can discipline them however you want. And since you can’t have children you should shut your **** mouth.”

Edward was fuming, “You think that’s fair? Do you think you can attack me personally like that?” Edward said while clenching his fists, “You’re something else, you know that? I feel sorry for you.”

“You feel sorry for me?” Allen erupted into laughter. “You’re pathetic, you know that?” Allen continued, “You come here and entertain my kids and wife because I got what you can’t have. I have a family, you loser. Why do you think my wife left you? Because you can’t have kids? No, it’s because you’re a loser. Now get the **** out of my house.”

Edward stood still. He was doing his best to stay calm, but Allen was hitting him where it hurt. He knew about his insecurities because he knew Linda’s past.

“I’m not leaving with you like this. I couldn’t care less about you, I’m here for the kids.” Edward said, still holding back his frustrations.

Allen looked at Edward in shock.
“I don’t know who you think you are, but you have two ******* seconds to leave my house. Now!”

Allen screamed while cracking his neck. He was ready for a confrontation with Edward.

“This is Linda’s house, too. In case you forgot.”

Allen charged after Edward. Edward stood still and when Allen drew near he reacted swiftly. Allen tried to hit him and missed. When Allen leaned back to throw a jab, Edward landed one clean punch to his jaw. Allen dropped to the floor and was out cold. Patricia ran out of the room screaming and crying, and Linda stood there in disbelief.

“Get out of my house,”
Linda’s monotone voice sending shivers down Edward’s spine.

“What?”

“Get out of my house now, Edward.”

“But-I-but...I was trying to stop him.”

“You have no right. You need to leave.”

“Linda, I know you don’t mean this.”

“I do, and you’re not welcome here anymore,” Linda said through teary eyes.
“You should go before Allen wakes up.”

“If I leave now I won’t be back.”

“I know. Now go before he wakes up.”

Linda walked to the front door, opened it, and stood beside waiting for him to leave. He looked at her and they both had tears running down their cheeks, silently sobbing. He walked toward her and they stood there, speechless. He tried to speak, but found it impossible. He leaned in, and kissed her cheek, then stumbled over his feet as he walked out. She stood at the door as he walked off. After five steps he turned around to see her still standing by the door.

He stared at her for a minute, which felt like an eternity, before he found his voice.
“I still love you,” he finally said.

“I don’t love you. I have Allen.”

“I know that’s not true.”

“Edward, you’re not my husband. Allen is and you need to accept that. *******, you can’t keep doing this to me.”

“I was your husband, Linda. I love you, and I know you still love me.”

“You’re mistaken,” She said through tears, “Now go. You’re not welcome here anymore.”

He walked off and never looked back. He knew he was out of line, and couldn’t put her through this. He walked off and never had the chance to see if she saw him walk off into the distance. When he vanished from her view he also vanished from society. He felt his life was pointless without having Linda and her children in his life.

At the age of eighty-nine he decided he couldn’t dwell on this incident anymore. He lived a long life, maybe not the happiest of lives, but a long life nonetheless. He went into his bedroom and sat on the edge of his bed. He was staring into the prescription bottle help firmly in his wrinkled hands. His sleeping pills were his fate. Twenty pills would give him the sleep he has been searching for. He wanted to leave this life through sleep and enter the next life feeling fully awakened.

He took his medication, not recommended by his doctor, and rested his head for the last time.

One week after his death he had a visitor. It was the first visitor he had in over thirty years.

Unaware that the man she was looking for was dead, Patricia knocked on the front door and eventually left. Before leaving she left a letter in his mailbox.

Dear Edward,

You not might remember me, but you were at one time involved with my mother. My mother, Linda spoke very highly of you. After my parents divorced she was hesitant to contact you, and she wasn’t sure if you were still around anymore. I loved the times we would have when she would talk about her youth, and your name was always brought up. I believe I heard your name said more than my own father’s name. I spent the rest of my years wondering where the man my mother was so fond of ended up. After a few years I was able to reach a few people that led me in the right direction. When I told my mother what I was doing she was very supportive and wanted to know every detail as it came along. Unfortunately she passed on before I could find you, but I know that her will is still as strong as it was when I told her about my decision to find you. In Heaven or on Earth I know she would be delighted that we could have the chance to reconnect. I’m sorry if this is too big of a shock to you, but I knew deep in my heart I had to find the man that was so special to my mother. I hope you are well and this letter is still significant after all of these years. And thank you for being by my mom’s side through her worst even though she wasn’t aware it was at the time. I am grateful even if she wasn’t at the time. I hope we can meet soon.

*Sincerely, Patrica.
This is a short story I wrote nearly four years ago. It needs to be edited, so excuse any mistakes and confusion.
betterdays May 2014
rumble
grumble
crack
lightning
jagged
sears the eye
plat
platt
  plitt
splat
clouds
burst
forth in
drilling
drumming
rhythm
flinging
water
pellets
at grime
collected
soil
neglected
mosoon season
breaks
the sky
making
backyards
into
squelching
squishy
mudpies
rumble
grumble
crack
raintrack
on
repeat
I think I'm spinning candy floss or is it raining sunflower seeds?
beads of sweat to make a necklace around my neck which I'm saving
for an abacus but need some more beads yet

I'm drowning in the dandelions which roar into my ears
I'm floating in kaleidoscopes and colouring in my years

But if I gave a **** and I'm sure I don't
I won't be tuning in.

There are keys for locks for clocks and keys to unlock locked up shops

my tongue is getting tired.

It was a random day in a random way when the winning number won
stardom was my Genevieve
I do believe that's true
two bullets in the barrel
One for me and
one for you.
EAHutch Mar 2014
You asked me about the neighbors.
They don’t say much.
They don’t mean much.
They lie with their backs pressed up against the bubble
In which we call home
We know so little about each other
Besides a name and a face
and the color of the outside of your house
We judge you by when you put your Christmas decorations up
and when you take them down
By the cars parked in your driveway
By the kind the of dog you own
and how often you are outside walking him
or by how many flowers you have in your front lawn

You asked me about the neighbors.
From my balcony
I can peak through the trees to the house of the older couple who
Obsessively water their lawn
How much water can you use?
Isn't your grass green enough?
And do you really have to mow the lawn at 7 Sunday morning?
And stop losing your cat
we are tired of hearing you call her name.

But on Monday evening
When the pile of textbooks on my desk is so heavy
if you threw it at someone it would **** them
And who knows when the studying will be over
Settle in
It should be a long night

The sound of the little girl’s laughter next door
Is like music that sinks deep into my soul
And brings a breath of relief
Your granddaughter is very beautiful
And I think she loves to sit in the
Green fresh cut grass with the cat
Time doesn’t stop for anybody.
I remember when that was me.

The people in the round house with the rickety steps
Are too loud.
Unstable young people who party too much.
The cars parked up and down the road are dotted with tickets
the next morning
The trash men have trouble with the bags of beer bottles
overflowing your garbage can
What a crazy night it must have been
and all over again next weekend.
You barely even made the rent this month
But everybody goes through a stage like that
And at least you ride your bike
And your big brown dog doesn’t chase our cats
Im betting in the next six months you should be out
And someone just like you will take your place

You asked me about the neighbors.
Across the street is the biggest house
They just bought an SUV
Its bulky and black and you cant see in the windows
so most of the time I don’t recognize them
That ****** ballerina of a daughter they have should get outside more
and her sister too
I think the fresh air would do them some good
We are surprised to see the maid’s car in their driveway today
Arn't they on vacation?
Whats the point?
We used to have that same maid.
But she only came once a week to our house
and twice to theirs
We decided we didn’t need her anymore
Because we can do our own cleaning.
When we were little I remember our lemonade stands
And pulling each other around in the wagon
the mudpies and the sandbox
gymnastics on the trampoline
They go to the private school and we go to the public.
We don’t talk much anymore.

The man and the woman with the golden retrievers are very kind
Although maybe they should think about a dog walker
Sometimes we worry Powder is going to pull his arm out of its socket
and Betty is going to yank her down
When we look in the window we can see her knitting
She always made me laugh when I saw her at the mailbox
He always gave good candy on Halloween and told us funny jokes
My brother and I are older now.
We don’t talk to them much.
All they really have to say when we see them is
“How you’ve grown up!”

You asked me about the neighbors.
They don’t say much.
Most of them have very green grass on their front lawn
And we don’t judge them for keeping their Christmas light up year round
Cause sometimes we do that too
There are no mean dogs
Come to think of it no mean people either
Sometimes they ask us to water their plants for a week
and usually they pay us well
Its really no trouble. Who doesn’t like flowers?
Your violets are my favorite
and your daises are very pretty too.
All we have in common is we live on the same street
And the same bear attacks our trashcans
And we all inhabit a place where sometimes the sunrise
is too beautiful to sleep through
And so we walk out on the driveway in our bare feet
Clutching our coffee cups
Grab the paper and stop and look around
And breathe the fresh morning air
And listen to the silence
And wave and smile and say good morning.
You asked me about the neighbors.
They don’t say much.

But I think they mean something.
Kara Rose Trojan Dec 2011
A colleague told me how
“All poems are hate poems.”
And I battered this wondered
Clobbered up like mudpies flopping,
Topped, and tossing between
Palms. Qualms pulled apart,
Stretched, stringy like
Taffy, sticking tongue to teeth, why
We can barely spreak when
We touch upon love.

There is Love – and there is Hate – two sides of the same blade
That steams your blood –
Smoke signals to
Your loved ones that you – in one way or another –
Are still orange-warm.

In this forgiving House of Blue Light – singing of malefic effigies:
Christ Light. Water light.
Trickled dirt along the corridors, wood-swollen, too.

Grab the safety handles of Hate – embrace them, know them, love them.
Hate is the pause between heartbeats that exhales the light in your veins.
Kay P Mar 2014
I feel in love with a girl, once.

She was shy and sweet and liked to keep to herself.
She only spoke when spoken to, and it was always much too quiet
to hear properly
or above everyone else.
Instead of asking her to speak up
I learned to listen.

I fell in love with a girl, once.

She had brown hair and the sort of eyes
poets dream of
I'm no Romeo but Paris better keep to himself
For starlight shifted in those orbs of blue-grey-green
and whole galaxies exploded into being
in my chest
expanding and multiplying
with the power of the universe.

I fell in love with a girl, once.

Her gaze dipped from mine whenever I complimented her
but she gave the sweetest smile
when she thought I wasn't looking
(and I was always looking)
and my mind refused to stop its hellbent pace
as it named our children and decided
she'd have the perfect wedding
she'd be a teacher
(it was her dream)
and I'd be an author
(a dream of my own)
that I'd rock her to sleep
(she has problems dreaming)
and play with her fingers
(so small in my own)
and buy her a constellation
(she loves stars more than she loves life)

I fell in love with a girl, once.

Knowledge flew from her lips as easily as prose from my pen
Facts she deigned to know
littered my mind in her voice
and I strived to remember it all
I did not always have any particular passion for the subject
but her voice was all I needed to become
the most adept student
in existence.

I fell in love with a girl, once.

My iPod filled itself
with music she'd hum under her breath
and I found her in the moments between thought
the pauses between songs
the spaces between stars.
She seeped through my life
leaving stardust on all she touched
She glowed in my mind
as the full moon on a clear night
controlled my emotions
as the moon does the tides
unintentional as gravity.

I fell in love with a girl, once.

Death slipped through her lips
and walked beside her as a constant companion
Her fingers were stained with acts of self-violence
her pale skin bruised and battered
her smiles quickly becoming
the most beautiful endangered species
She was my happiness
but I was no good for her
only another
on the long list
of unworthy.

I fell in love with a girl, once.

I couldn't tell her sister or her mother
her father, or mine.
I could never let the words slip from my own lips
grace her ears with harsh emotion
though she deserved every word
though  they were the truth in every sense
I could only tell our friends
and they knew all along.

I fell in love with a girl, once.

Her hands were small, compared to mine
Her body was petite.
She was soft where I was sharp
smooth curves where I was harsh angles
She was by far more polite and feminine
neater and far more oriented
Whilst I was dirt and mudpies
piles of belongings and wipe-your-nose-with-your-sleeve
She was the good, of the two of us
but ask her and she'll say
the same of me.

I fell in love with a girl, once.

Slipped, more like
slid without noticing
descended at a pace most distressing
in hindsight
and ended up in far deeper in water
than could have been anticipated
(and I can barely swim)

I fell in love with a girl, once.

And still, I sink.
Spoken Word Poem, kinda
Karliah May 2018
I've been a child
As long as I can remember
Soft, young and mild

At least I feel to be
In the moments of peace
When no one calls my name

When the sun warms my face
And the birds sing of summer
Swallows dance and chase

Filled with white hope
Pure and untainted
My world magic
Thessa J Pickett Oct 2014
Memories and flashbacks
Childhood. . . Grandma
Spoiled
Peaceful, country meadows
Ponds
Spaghetti O's
Roast beef,  beans and cornbread
Homework
her third grade education
Finding me with n Strangers
When my mom decided to go on drug fending binges from city to city
The swingset I wanted
The mudpies she ate
The sacrifices she taught me of
The determination she instilled
The cold mornings she made fires
Warmth,  breakfast in bed
Kittens, clotheslines,  and the never ending biscuit bowl that I never understood how it remained full day after day.
The plaits I hated yet love now
The smell of her clothes
How she sashayed when she dressed up
Her anger
Sitting in the porch with our dog Spot
Princygal the cat
Late night peanut butter cookie baking
The sign in her wall that said
Life is one fool thing after another
Love is two fool things after each other
That I read over and over again until finally I understood.
Everything clean and cooked by noon

What happens tomorrow?
Barbara Swan Sep 2012
They're seventeen and fourteen, those girls who have our hearts
from curley top and sassypants, they've grown up tall and smart
what ever happened to those  ribbons and bows that was braided in their hair
they've traded in the baby stuff, and now its liner and lipstick they wear..

We really miss those days gone by, their games and movies and noise
mudpies and tea parties are over and done, they've now discovered "boys"
So now we wait a few more years, to see what they'll become
We hope that we are still around  when they find their special "one'

I guess the most important thing, that we would hope they share
the memories and the love we have, for both will always be there
So as we grow older and so do they, as life has so proclaimed
We leave to them our legacy, and someday they'll do the same.
ManVsYard Nov 2014
I saw myself, just yesterday
sitting on a roadside rock
contemplating this and that
What was once skinny
now seems fat.
What once was mouse
now is rat.

Doors once open,
swinging,
now have locks
Looks like dog packs
sounds like *****.

inside outside underware
Hawking mudpies at
the County Fair.
Thoughts so thick, I yank my hair.
Suddenly frozen. I sit and stare

days, weeks pass. "was that a knock?"
I find my wrist.
A strapped on clock?

I see the lie-ing hand spin round
moon rises, sun rises, make a loud sound
what was lost, remains un-unfound
what was valley, now is a mound
Big toe rooting,
ventilated sox
both shoes missing, cardboard box.

Suddenly, It's today
at last!
Debris surrounds me. Shattered masks?
Stomach empty? Methusela fast.
No more future, no more past.

Large ships!
Arriving, at the docks.
Time goes crazy,
when there are
no more tocs.

A lovely world of only tics.
no more stealing,
no more tricks
no more soft talk,
no more big sticks
It's raining gold,
no axes no picks

chickens sleeping
with the fox-es
Un coveting of the neighbor's ox-s.

And his gougeous
brick house wife
and his so called
perfect life
Dict. : Deleting
words like strife
dancing to ditties
from a fife

Wearin fine hats shaped
like a Chinese Wok
sittin alone on a roadside rock.
CL Fjell Apr 2019
The day after She left me I broke
I decided it was time for a change
A change,
Something new to wake up to,
A new start as hopeful as it sounds.
They all say now is the best time to
Become a new me.

So I stole my neighbors tractor tire
**** it sure is heavy
Heavy, like the morning light on my
Eyes when I finally quit my job--
But I digress
I take the dilapidated tire to the edge
Of my suburban lot
(I hate this lot
Why she chose this lot I'll never know
Stupid ***** can take it all)--
I crawl into the tire
And with a single push

I'm off!

Ambition fills my empty shell
This loathsome corpse
Rolling endlessly away from his
Past
Past the neighbours
Past the dog that **** in my yard
If you could call it a yard
A yard is where kids play
And men pridefully mow
And women tan brown and laze
Like my neighbors wife half-past noon
While he works and lays his assistant
I stare promiscuous beams at her
Hoping she'll see me and know I too
Long for a real love

Maybe I could talk to her
Have an affair
Move away to a lovely town
With a yard
Along with little children who
Call me daddy and make mudpies
In our driveway

Maybe one day
But on this day
I roll
And roll
Roll
Into a new me
A real
Me
Into a new love
Onto a field of opportunity

Maybe one day
But on this day
I roll
Into a new me
Onto the train tracks
smallhands Jul 2016
they are waiting for something good
can work erase the bad?
kids eat mudpies and cry "mushaboom, mushaboom"
there goes the fear they once had for the wild
now it's become a phantom limb

-c.j.
now is not the time for tears
bind whatever is broken
prop yourself up
your confidence seems to be flagging
a death sentence for straw dogs and hollowmen
such as we
it's over but it won't go away.
Ken Pepiton Jan 2022
Rich in time, at the distant shore
of Stix, laughing with the ferry men
and pall bearers, all retired, the gig is up.

There never was a Santa Claus,
and there never was a hell… that is,
an everlasting grief for failure to know
what no authorities allowed known,
even grown to full stature,
the things we agree
1798 was for some reason, poetically
important
now 2022

I hear Cordelia. What? "nothing, my lord."

With graven mudpies,
patty-caking clay and straw, straw
another story creature, or
character, entity, yes, an ity-ness
some being, whether operator or
operand, all opera is
some minds presenting das gestalt,
nicht whar?
A we.
Heavy, cold molasses heavy, very
worthy, measured weight, shipped,
dripped,
sent, in hope, one day,
the effect of a message in a bottle,
occurs, as any reader
sees another knowing for a reason,
hidden
upto, perhaps a true 151st preposition
aiming at an upper limit,

How high can mind go after body,
augmented with nets of ordered signals,

is laid to rest, in my future, all the books
I never wrote, drip from my fingers, I am
the trained brained qwerty and morse guy.

Ghee of Auvergne. But for the e, I remembered,
though you may know now this is after
I paid effectual prayer through AI,
to ality of Rheality, all the knowledge in the tree,

in the nut, that falls to the ground and grows,
morpheus, makes it symbolic as hell
and the eucharist hoc es pokemonic -****!
you're a scannable canticle cannibals' cambial
allusion .
cambium (n.)
1670s in botany,
"layer of tissue between the wood and the bark,"
from Late Latin cambium "exchange,"
from Latin cambiare "change" (see change (v.)).

From <https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=cambial>


Are we under your skin, slow think, we
is who
we are thinking. Let ter by letter stepping on

the compliants subsurface, softer than sand,
that cave - null arbor, tree of null-ity
annul - ah, "to make to nothing,"
that fine a dust,
a locale thought, linked, in a beautiful way
I may show you some day, these silken threads
that tie me to a wombed man,
in the land down under,
distant thunder, no sense of doom, this is happy
summer rain,
come to settle dust and fill all the puddles and ponds,
wells and cisterns,
gullies and wadis and broad sandy beaches,
visible from space,
any augmented eye may see, we live
on the wreck of a world.

One shell told Ben Franklin that, he said
that to many sons, many sons,
has Father Ben, the Humanist,

I insist, a hume-man ist, a human being
sapient, the action in the term sapience,
using that, knowing
I am thinking in terms any who read may define,
sift to the essential Eu-clade, literal
silence in time stop state, patient waiting if this
is why I live,
something I may have done, I did to dare the liar
smite me, many's the time,
cliché click heels snap

I salute my double mind minions, characters
set in array, as suits in a soap opera rich guy's
closet, close, close
always be
closing, set, the scene then changes and now
matters
- was Plato a big blue ox?
Why were poets banished? Truly, we are dealing
in common knowledge now, the sheet let down
from heaven, pick and choose,
you cannot or can not, wrestle with God,
and walk away,
without a limp.

Distillery stories, lotta sittin' around, drinkin'
spirits from former years,
we was young and in heat of the moment, tuned
to TV news, because we could know, what was
goin' on, after reality included knowledge
of fusion energy in seventh grade science,
right, when confusion was a word in spell-
ing bees, hmmm
ding
weedy insights, like first grass in fields burned
last fall, tender shoots for tiny kids and lambs
and calves and colts, and coyotes and squirrels
and cotton tails, and quails.

How rich are we?
sandra wyllie Apr 2022
relationship of honey and
purple flowers
rainbow bridges and
gumdrops showers. All we have

is all we need. Al and me
and the honeybee. We dance and
laugh. But do not bake.  All we make
are mudpies and patty-cakes. The only thing

we string along are beads and some
old notes to songs. We don't dress
up. But every day we wear a smile with
colored underwear. We look through bright

blue and red picture books. All I miss is
his kisses, hugs and cuddles and starlight
wishes. Many call us fluff. But we have
each other. And that’s enough!

— The End —