Salt Water

J ealous green eyes power stroke
U ncertain feeling small
D eceit
A ll that is meant is spent
S alvation from self

L et it hold
O ver and over
V oice without sound
E nticed
D amned

M ercy plea
E ffort to save forced
R eality calls
M ind concrete
A nother void
I llusion thick
D ealt is the hand
S omeone weeps with absence

black velvet

the kettle on the stove top screamed. joey would fall into these deep sleeps, no one could wake him. believe me everyone had tried. most efforts started as fun, but quickly fun turn to fear outright. no one was ready for joey to go, my grandmother mable was no exception. joey had been her everything when my grandfather passed.

she would have us check on joey all the time. we would have to go through the route of telling her, "oh gram, joey is just sleeping..." she would insist and we would always follow suit with the attempts to wake poor joey. i often thought this was joey's only way to have a break from us. or should i say, grams.

i got up from the folding table that was now our kitchen table since my brother luther had one of his blackouts from black velvet. he had decided one evening that our kitchen table would be his bed. now had you known the stature of luther that proposition voiced alone would be well enough for a laugh. luther was a dumb bastard. he could do no wrong in grams eyes.

i move the kettle to the other burner and get two cups down for tea. grams loved her tea with just a drop of honey. i called for grams to come down for her tea. she replied she would be down shortly and for me to wake joey from his nap.

our afternoon routine was like clockwork and we both liked it as such. it was about the only thing we could count on, well, grams had joey as well.

as grams was coming down the stairs to the kitchen I had the tea on the folding table and was trying to wake joey.

today was different. joey was dead. we never drank our tea that day....... my grandma loved that dog.

i still hated luther.