They gave me thirty-six hours to live. I’m adrift in a nightmare as they talk about grief counselors and hospice. No one prepares you for the fragility of life, nor the urgency of its inevitable end. Unfulfilled dreams consume my thoughts, each as insignificant as a deflated balloon. Because now, more than ever, all I want is to live. A nurse joins us in the exam room that already feels suffocating. She apologizes, and mutters something about mixed-up files and…
Dangerous Game They lied about how they met. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either. To know their entire story was a dangerous game to play. The weight of knowing an unbearable burden, a constant reminder of the suffocating net they were entangled in. Few partook, and most were dead. For the rest, it was inevitable their luck would run out. A perilous dance between life and death, forever bound to a fate that seemed…
Old age has crept up on me, although by many standards I am not old. I am older than I once was, but generations ahead of me chuckle at the idea that I am old. Yet, the spring in my once lively step is gone. I am well acquainted with the banter as I ascend or descend stairs, and plan my outings around the weather, some of which makes my joints ache. I rise and fall with the sun, and…
1. The formica table which sat below the window that was far too high on the wall. Or maybe I was so much shorter, and it seemed abnormally high to me. The table was always full of projects, papers, coupons, and bowls. The deseeding of figs for her sister, the coupons to give away. There was nothing particularly special or beautiful about the white and black table, but I remember how we sat in the battered chairs and discussed many…