Kitchen Cigarettes

This is a short story. Tell me what you think.

Shift

The sun just past the sleepy horizon.

Dots blanketing the sky fade with the night.

Soft, tired eyes waking with the day’s dawn

As drowsy mountains crave morning’s light.

The quiet, meditative murmur of his steady breathing,

Hazy dreaming.

Half the world lay in still slumber.

Even while you rest, I see your mind wander.

Rays illuminate the room, not yet ours,

Shapes and shadows inching across beige walls.

Rub the night away from your eyes;

You are even more divine than the sunrise.

Up in Flight

Up in the air, Up above it all, soaring.

Playground sandbox mountains,

thumb-sized cities.

A quilt of green, each patch a different hue,

Sewn together with

Needle and thread of

Cars and dirt roads.

Up above the clouds,

Up in flight,

Up in height.

Flying so high, so high,

The tiny earth below,

And me,

A giant!

And then the seatbelt sign alights,

Heart sinking as the world grows larger

And we descend through the blanket of cotton

And me, saddened, because I liked feeling that tall.

I Am Not A Tree

With summer’s demise,

Veneer from green to red to black, no longer mine.

Leaves leave and fall with fall

From my arms to the ground in heaps,

Then raked away

By winter the garment bandit.

Shriveled and shivering,

No coat to keep me cozy.

The night’s curtain

Blanketing the sky,

Black boughs bare until spring warmth

Bears new garb.

Once again

No longer naked

And the thief returns,

Apologetic,

Adorning me with song birds

Amongst budding flower.

It’s quite alright,

I forgive you,

And I stretch my arms upward

Into the warm sun.

Love Bagels

You turn over my hands,

Handing me a million reasons to

Hand you my affection.

You touch the small of my back,

A tiptoeing rush sent

From your fingertips

All the way up my spine,

Sifting through the subway labyrinth,

Together,

Lost amidst the potpourri of people.

You give me emptied wine glasses stained

With midnight laughter.

You are my Paris,

San Francisco,

Spain,

Italy,

The entire New York cityscape.

I lie next to you,

Watch your sleepy eyes sigh,

The weight of your propelling intellect at rest,

And I lose you to

The muffled roar of

Crashing salt waves,

An infinite tide

From the depths of your belly.

Our love,

Cupped but not contained,

Growing but still new,

Fragile but never broken.

I want to kiss every part of your face

Without you knowing

As you hazily drift in and out,

Back and forth.

You give me the scent of toasted bagels in the morning.

Cream and sugar in my coffee;

You

In equal amount

Offer me comfort and desire.

Make 2014 Your Bitch

This weird, awkward period shoved between Christmas and the New Year always puts everyone in a reflective mood, and suddenly the year becomes one in review. Another one in the books. But with the end of one year comes the beginning of another. There’s nothing quite like the idea of starting fresh: ‘new year, new you’. Here are some goals/resolutions for making 2014 the best and baddest year yet:

1. Respect yourself! We are all different and we are all beautiful in our own ways. Learn to be okay with who you are and grateful for what you’ve been given. No one in the history of the universe will ever be exactly the same as you, and that’s pretty fucking special.

2. Master the art of power naps: Sometimes a small nap is all you need to be re-energized for the rest of the day.

3. Don’t procrastinate: whether it’s a school assignment, a work project or a self-made goal, don’t waste any time getting to the finish line. Do yourself a favor and keep the stress level to a minimum!

4. Stay in touch with family and friends. A simple phone call is sometimes all you need to turn your day around.

5. Keep a journal. Write your raw thoughts, ideas, personal and worldly events, overheard conversations, favorite book quotes and movie lines. Capture and preserve all the little memories; this is life and history in the making, and you’ll want to remember every bit of it later on.

6. Quit being passive aggressive, especially via social media. If you have beef with someone, hash it out in person or at least 1-on-1; the world does not need to be involved in your private matters.

7. Don’t hold grudges. It’s just not healthy. There is no reason to dwell in something that already happened, so move on. The past is the past and should stay in the past.

8. Recognize that shit does happen. That’s life. What matters is not how you fall but how you pick yourself back up.

9. There are times when life can’t seem to give you a break, but you owe it to yourself to catch a breather every now and then. Allowance for “me-time” is essential.

10. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, but at the same time, don’t be afraid of indulgences. Go ahead. Have a slice of pie!

11. Come up with a workout routine you like and stick with it. It’s completely okay if you have to miss a day, but don’t make up excuses to skip, either.

12. Embrace your emotions instead of brushing them aside or bottling them up. It’s okay to cry, it’s okay to be angry, it’s okay to be happy. Emotions are real and a part of who you are, so let yourself feel.

Cheers, everyone!