3 More Pieces from The Lost Art of Loving a Difficult Woman

Cast Photo

Here we are at the Globe
Yeah
She had a walk-on part in Mid summer’s Night Dream

I helped with the set
got paid and what a resume booster

This is the Cast Photo
That’s her right there
Pale
Raven hair
Obscene gesture

That’s her

The Street Cafe in London

One of the best runs of clement weather in 25 years
And we were lucky enough to score a walk-in table

Parmesan skin appetizers
Puffed up little pork scratchings from a rind
Espresso poured over vanilla ice cream
affogato style

She said
“In Germany
you can drink your beer on the streets
and in the subway if you don’t spill it.”

Café Babalú

Took this picture in Reykjavik
The airport isn’t actually in town
Keflavik International Airport is about 50 kilometers to the east

If you do a lay-over
and spend some tourist-time in Iceland
you get free flight continuity

The waitress dared me to eat snails
but we ordered sandwiches

She said
“The first boy I ever kissed
smelled of wanting
desperate wanting
and hurt. . .”

She pulled a stalk of parsley out of her sandwich
sniffed it
flicked it on our tray

Sipped her soda
(an Eglis Applesin)
Made a face
checked her phone
Said
“You guys are all alike
Just the same. . . .”

And she said nothing else

3 Pieces from the Lost Art of Loving a Difficult Woman

the Archon of Romance passes

wars come
wars come again

the Archon of Romance passes

caring too much
is the same kind of numb
as caring not enough

Leviathans in Dark Waters

She found me after the play
She said
“I would paint my lips with your words”

She said
“I have brought you this flower. . .”

Said
“Walk with me.”

Ellis at the Coffee Shop

He has his phone
doing that thing that everyone does
Scrolling through a life he was too busy photographing
a life he didn’t have time to live
because. . . well, you know

He said
“This is a shot of a used coffee cup.
The paper kind of cups
you get in airports. . .”

Next, he shows me a picture of a woman
He name?
Honestly, I don’t remember

Said
“She said to me
‘It’s not easy to be so loving.
People. . .
They don’t know what to do with it when I’m kind
but kindness is the only way I know to deal with people.’”

He flicks back to the picture of the cup
I notice the cup in the picture
is on the floor
He said
“She knocked the cup off the table
and left it.
She wasn’t thoughtless
just too thoughtful, perhaps. . .”

I Miss Raven

I miss Raven
Miss the way she could show me wonder
even in the heart of darkness

I miss the sheen
of her electric-black feathers

Miss the pheromones of her ebon hair
even in my deepest night

The sound of her stiletto heals
as she walked through my dark thoughts

I miis talking with Raven
about all things scientific
The magma world inside the world
The way universes are built from both pain and pleasure
The way the wind dies . . .

God
I miss Raven

The Binder and the Dark-spawn

Jenelle is sleeping on the couch. I sit in the chair, right beside her head.
Her demon is running back and forth across the back of the couch. It does that a lot when it’s bored.
It is a slither of smoke with oversized paws that conceal nasty little claws. I have seen it for as long as I have known her. It is my small talent/curse.
It’s time I spoke to it directly. The myst that makes me demon-proof is kinda thick and it take a bit of concentration to thin it enough to speak Hesirith. That, and it makes the shielding kinda itchy and cantankerous.
“You. . . on the couch.” It ignores me.
“Shac-akawak-naw wa-tokata. . .” That gets its attention.
My hand is on her arm before it can get back into her. “Sorry, old sport, but no.”
If it dissipates, then problem solved, one less of its kind.
It decides to try attacking me. Bad choice. The shielding holds. They hate it when I laugh at them.
By its actions it has created a relationship with me. I reach through the connection and grab it by the underside. They really hate that.
An hour of really pointless struggle ensues and the dark-spawn starts to run down. It can’t feed on either of us and I’m not letting it out, so its starving.
It whines for a while; threatens for a while more and at length goes silent.
“Now, little pup, I am sure you have heard of Binders. Yeah, it’s like that. I am gonna make a deal. Either you dissipate and leave this plane for all eternity or I bind you to something inanimate and throw it into the ocean.”
It tries to bite my face. I sigh.
“Son this is pointless,” and I find the part of me that does the binding.
The creatures speaks, “Hold thy hand. Lest you in haste bring a misfortune to all concerned.”
“You mean Jenelle?”
“She summoned me and in exchange for the gifts she gives me I provide her with. . . entertainments.”
“About that, I don’t care, leave now or be bound and learn to entertain fish.”
“You insolent human, if you knew of my master. . .”
“I am the Keewah of Sultac, Binder of Nethers and Dark-spawn. I am the Fear-god of your fathers and your master fears me. Stop the rhetoric and decide your fate.”
“She needs me. . .”
“No, she doesn’t.”
And it is gone, choosing dissipation above binding. Eh’.
Jenelle awakes and is dulled by the experience.

Within an hour she has thrown me out of the apartment. The last thing she said to me before throwing her cell phone out the window was, “How can I write now! I needed that inspiration if I’m ever do anything worth a crap. You did this to me, and I hate you! Never come back!”

So, I guess its true, you must be careful when you throw out a demon, that you don’t throw away the best part. . .

Midnight at the Faceshifter’s Ball ~ Initial Scan

Tomblin says
“Amalia is drunk right now
Her face gets all mushy when she’s had a few to drink
Her whole jawline sags. . .”

I’m wondering if the punch is spiked
or if Amalia has her own private. . . source?

Tomblin says
“Ashley is in the girl’s room
crying while looking in the mirror right now
She just can’t keep a straight face
Taught me how to sext
She’s totally out of your league”

Ashley?
Which one was Ashley?

Tomblin says
“Ross
Not all that attractive, for a guy
but topnotch funny
Unlike you”

I check to see if my zipper is up. . .

Jagra Loy – Tyro, level 5

Jagra Loy – Tyro, level 5
If You Love Thing – Set it Free

Oh
My lovely Bird of Prey
So sleek and . . .
broken

She was after all
raised by swans
Creatures of culture
Creatures of habit
Creature that had no business
trying to conform her
Trying to beat her square peg
Into their round holes

And that look
“Come closer if you dare”
She knows no other way

So we play a waiting game

Oh
My lovely Bird of Prey
Watches from her tree
Oh exquisite bird of prey
you have captured me

And on that winter grey day
under a pewter sky
Straight into me you flew

I warmed you in the night
And fed you flesh
That you might reclaim the sky
It is my way
and I do not ask it why

In the morning light
I try to set you free . . .

And the cicadas whirred

I was opening my hand in darkness
Opening and closing my hand
Thinking about all the things we did
Things we thought about
things we’d never do
And the cicadas whirred . . .

After dinner we broke out the recliners
In the dimming light, tiny rivers of lightning
coursed the belly of the clouds
snaking toward the setting sun
Forking like the veins and arteries
the roots of my heart

I felt your hand on my heart
your smile was not pretty

And the cicadas whirred . . .