CouchyCreature

It lurks in the dank, dark heart of the woods, attracting all that slinks, crawls and slithers in the night. Pushing cold into the bones and nightmares into the heads of children, who wake crying with fear and creeping to their parent's beds for comfort. In the morning it will be gone. It feeds on hope and once hope is gone, it moves on. It must, because the hope does not return. Those who lose it know that it is lost forever and they will no more see the joy in life. When they laugh, their laughter is hollow, like their eyes. Their easy smiles at seeing a loved one are replaced by a quick glimpse over their shoulder, to be sure no one is

He dreams awake, and waking, the visions stay. They've come back. He can't see them, or hear them. He just knows they're there. Softly, softly, they move soundlessly from point to point, as if mapping a boundary mostly unseen, in a shadowland of shadow play. He wasn't afraid ...not much anyway. He'd felt their presence before. They'd been there swooping and soaring on silent wings, casting no shadows in a midday sun. He didn't know then that the voices would come later. Tiny little piping voices, that at first he didn't understand, like the meaningless chatter of city cafeterias. But soon the stories emerged. Soaring stories, stories o

Distressed by love, turned to pornography or joke in the hands of the evil and feeble minded. Isolated in the office with devices that imitate true communication, or dealing with smiles motivated by money or business or other less obvious agendas, turn it on, turn it off. Homewards - the initial shivered moment of fear as you put the key in the lock, like a genetic memory. Lights on, alarm off, answering machine reports on command. Advising of meetings delayed, apppointments confirmed. Tired, you eat - canned Navy beans, easy in some bland and unidentifiable sauce. Then, late night television news from everywhere but here. Still no real

I woke thinking of you, wishing that when I finally chose to open my eyes, I would see your head on the pillow beside me, be able to snuggle into your body and smell your skin ...a heady mix of subtle pheremones, perspiration and the more lingering ingredients of the perfumes you wear.