Hello, sir, you're looking... Well,

    we'd best get underway.

I'd hate to keep you too held up -

    unless... you'd like a game?

I know you play - I've heard the tales

    of gambling Death for life,

If you'd kindly sit right there,

    I'll get the board and dice.

The wild rejects the shackles

imposed on it by others;

Valuing only its freedom,

it admits no gods, no masters.

If it were otherwise,

it would no longer be.

It seemed as though the entire village had gathered to watch her journey into the forest. The townsfolk whispered of ancient curses and malevolent spirits - and prophesies of the doom that would certainly befall anyone who trespassed in that haunted place.

None of their warnings meant anything to her, of course. She knew there were no curses or ghosts in those old woods. No – what slept in that dark, hidden corner of the world was far worse than some chain-rattling specter, and she had come well prepared for it.

All night, I pondered

questions; I wondered

of nature and math

and the perfect path

to the truth. I got

no answers - I'm not

sure they can be found.

I've heard people advance the thought

that artists and entertainers

don't hold "real jobs," aren't "productive."

Apparently not finding worth

in diversion and in culture,

but holding work in high regard,

Members of the Gray Society

must have a higher tolerance

for absolute boredom than I.

In my brain, the gears are turning

calculating words concerning

output of my mind's processes:

thoughts of how my life progresses,

     of random walks toward my dreams,

     of theories of what my life means,

     of searches for my perfect role -

thoughts of AMechanicalSoul.

Maybe I shouldn't take you for granted,

or maybe I should show more appreciation

that you've put up with me for all these years,

have given up for me more than I know;

even if I don't always show my thoughts,

really, I'm happy to call you "my mom."

I had eaten a box

filled with soft tacos, once;

I will not give details*,

of what junk food entails,

but suffice it to say,

I was never the same.

*Gastrointestinal distress.

"The stars are islands in a sea,"

an old analogy;

imagine, though, that it were true -

the sky, a world indeed.

With every light, a continent;

the space between, an ocean;

distant lands inhabited

by parallel sky humans.

Imagine, then, the theater

that'd play just out of sight;

beyond our reach, a living world,

throughout the starry night.