My father is dead, still he speaks through me; “Don’t say anything....OR ELSE!… There was plenty of “OR ELSE!” to go around.

I am seven years old. My brother is ten. The beating was brutal. My brother is recovering conscious… I believed he was dead.

The old priest gazes out upon his… each head bowed before the sacred… A scarred and broken bodied warrio… seeking inner peace and final abso… An elderly wealthy man of commerce…

You play your cards so well. Looks like you’ve had a lot of pra… You seem to have a thorough grasp of all the rules of the game. As you cover every angle,

trust the one who seeks the truth doubt the one who says he’s found…

My father has come to dinner; He does not knock. He is not welcome. He is dead. Yet he insists on joining me

The old man, who thinks he’s dying, approached me with these words. I am sorry

Almost silent, A numbing hum. It is a cold cloudless night. A brilliant bone-white moon hovers amidst stars upon stars upon stars…

A subtle movement, a facial expression, a particular posture, the constant hint of danger; as if he were here again,

A sudden gust of bitter wind from somewhere hot and foul, whooped and howled throughout the scattered waste and scrabble down that God-forsaken alley.