My phone rang a few minutes after we finished opening gifts.
“Excuse me; it’s my parents.”
I stood up and walked outside, answering the phone as the bell above the door jingled.
“Hi mom, hi dad.”
“Hi, Walter. Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas to you, too. How’s Georgia?”
“Sure beats New England this time of year,” my dad said.
“The weather’s not so bad right now,” I replied. “I’m actually outside.”
“Is there snow?” My mom asked.
“A bit. Looks like there’s going to be more later today, though.”
“Did you get our gift?”

Soaked in the concentrated
quick of existence
this bird song
is a sugarcube
dunked in the liqueur
of life.

It's mounting, forcing you to veer off the clean-paved road onto a dusty, narrow dirt path. You bounce so violently in the car, over natural potholes and centuries-old pebbles, that a chink of your conscience cracks off. The moralistic sliver flutters through the window, and you stare after it, wishing you could reverse. But you've gone too far already.

Math is simple. 1+1=2, 2x2=4, 3-1=2. 4/2=2
Or at least, it is to begin with.
Find the derivative of the following functions: f(x)= (x +sin x)^23
Nobody jumps right from the former to the later. There are steps, processes, from learning the numbers and the basic principles, to decimals and fractions, with lessons in geometry and basic algebra before tackling the rigors of calculus. You have proofs in geometry, listing the rules that allow one to define congruent and similar angles.

June 24th, 2009
Dear Journal,
Mom just told me that she would buy me a phone since I'm gonna be babysitting a lot. She said it would be good to have it, just in case something happens and I need her. I'm glad because people make me nervous. Even nice people. I guess it's because there have been so many bad people in my life, even the ones that started out as nice people. I feel safer when I'm at home alone than I did when someone had to stay with me while Mom worked. I never told Mom because I don't want her to feel bad. She can't help it.
Kennedy

[this has been redacted for possible publication. I will repost if it doesn't get into the college lit mag.]

I don't know if this will ever
Float away
I think it does and look down
And find
A length of twine is tied
Around my wrist
The knot refuses
To relent
I try to pull it past
My knuckles--straining white
The blood flow cut off
By the embrace
I try to
Gnaw
Primal
With my teeth
Get it off
Off of me
Let it go
Be
Someone else's
Flighty dream
But it
Won't
Go
It won't
Go
And it stings
When I think
I'm free
And then

When considering Biblical womanhood in the Scriptures, there is one verse that comes up rather frequently:

Who can find a virtuous woman?
For her price is far above rubies.
- Proverbs 31:10

"The Christian Musician" went live on Amazon this morning! You can get it here:
http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Musician-Taking-playing-reality-ebook/d…

:)

There was a pinch
I will not lie
When the enormity of the occasion
Felt its way under my skin
I could have let my eyes
Spring open
Succumbing to the oddity
The culmination of this odyssey
The surrealism
Of standing a few hundred feet
From somebody I've professed to
On ink and virtually
And more brazenly
Aloud
But the fingers that
Skimmed my skeleton
Then
Pressed against my tear-ducts
Securing them to a
Dry fate
I did not know relief