lay on your back

beneath the dark sky.

look up

and watch the stars drift by.

stardust falls

onto your skin.

the universe

becomes you..

fingers like magnets

drawn up

placed like a crown

upon my head

woven into hair

resting,

yet ever moving.

a crown of lies

then covered by a woolen hat.

when they come down again

there’s no satisfaction

there’s no releif

there’s no stopping

and no time

before I find the crown of shame

atop my head once more.

Douglas moped down the sidewalk; shoulders hung low, bouquet hung lower. Simone's harsh words tormented his soul-- until the sole of his shoe met a piece of pink chewing gum. It was still mushy, for a six-year-old pigtailed girl in blue dress had accidentally spat it out three minutes prior. She skipped along, holding her mum's hand singing 'ABC' when it slung from her glossy lips. Rolling his eyes, Douglas sighed depressingly and continued home.

“Take a right at the next stop sign”, Rosaline implied, looking down at the crumbled up map. I looked to my right at an old dirt road, the only lighting is the gleam of the moon.

“Are you sure?”, I questioned as a deep feeling rolled over my shoulders. I look over at Rosaline giving me the look to just do it. I take a right at the red sign.

This camping trip is exactly what I need, a time to get away and be free from school and work. My friends taking the journey with me also required a break from their lives. Sammi has been going crazy from listening to twelve kids screaming through her household. And Rosaline has been going through what I would wish on no one, cancer. She had been diagnosed a month ago. This is her last trip before she starts her treatments.

“This road doesn't look right,” Sammi comments. The small person in the back of the car, sitting on the window. With her blonde hair taken by the wind. She gives me a concerned face as we continue on the unsettling road.

Rosaline, fluttering around with the map in the passenger seat, starts pointing out every small rock or branch on the road. She is the ‘worrying’ one of the three of us. Every time we go anywhere, she is the one making sure all the ends meet. She is the organized one of us.

As Sammi is trying to direct us to the safest way to get through the road, she points out the window, “A bridge.” I pull over to look at the map. The map is guiding us through this little wooden bridge, that covers a small cliff into water. As far as I could see it looked stable. The map leads us straight through the bridge, onto a small road, that will lead us back to the correct path.

After a while of discussing, we decided instead of turning around and driving back another hour to the original road, we would just go through the bridge. I started the small car and pulled forward, passing the entrance of the bridge. The bridge was holding up for a while. But after a couple feet into the middle of the bridge, we started to hear cracking. I slowed down the car, now we are going about five miles per hour. I soon realized that I had made a big mistake.

The car began to sink through the wooden boards. We were all starting to get very uneasy. Then the back wheel broke through the bridge the car jerked back. Sammi still sitting in the window, was jerked along with the car. The force pulled her right from the car, off the bridge. She fell into the water. The stream took her past where I could see.

“How do we get out without falling?”, Rosaline yelled, “ Katelyn what do we do?”.

I could only reply with “How the fudge would I know?” I started looking around trying to figure out our escape plan. I couldn’t move the car because the back wheel is stuck through the bridge. The bridge is too narrow to just get out of the car and walk out. So we climbed on the roof of the car.

At this point we are trying to slide from the top of the car to the front, to run off the bridge. But before we could, it starts to rain. We are sliding and slipping everywhere, almost falling from the roof into the water. I work my way down onto the bridge. I reach my hand out to Rosaline.

Rosaline slips, she falls in the same manner as Sammi did, too fast to help. I just stand there in shock, trying to imagine what to do. I reach my hand towards my phone. Of course no service. I start running for the next five minutes down the road with my phone raised in the air.

After some time I finnaly get service, I call the police and tell them where I am and they send an ambulance. They spent the next couple of hours searching the river. They found them huddling about a mile down the river. They were brought to the hospital. Just a couple of scrapes and bruises. But for the car, it had fallen completely through the bridge. There was no hope left for that poor car.

The police officer asked, “How did you end up there?”. We all answered with the same words, “We took a right!”.

I walked with my wife down the boardwalk by the river. After thirty years, we can bask in the comfort of the quiet of just enjoying each other's company. "Hey, hon?" she asks. "Hmm?" I respond, watching a flock of birds fly overhead. I hear her hesitation, "Who was Billy?" My world grinds to a halt at this seemingly innocent question. How did she know? How long has she known? Why ask me now? My mind is flooded with memories of that day.

Billy and I were walking down this same boardwalk over forty years ago. We laughed and playfully punched one another, just enjoying the summer sunshine. Billy pointed to a group of girls coming the opposite direct, "I bet you can't get that girl's number." I laugh, "Nice try. I fell for that last time. She was your cousin, and you paid her to embarrass me like that at the mall." Billy shook his head vigorously, "No, I mean it! She's really cute. Maybe you guys will click like my parents did." "What do you mean," I ask. Billy started in on his story.

Twenty years ago on this same boardwalk, Billy's parents had met for the first time. They locked eyes and immediately knew they were meant to be together. Of course, it would take them another five years to admit to one another how much they liked each other. You never admit to your crush how much you like them! His parents had kissed each other, and as they pulled away, Billy's mother had asked, "What changed you mind?" Billy's father hugged her close, "Do you remember me telling you about my grandfather?"

Fifty years ago, Billy's father's grandfather was fishing with a buddy of his on the shore that would one day be the boardwalk. There were no busy streets or bustling folk, so the area was nice and peaceful for an afternoon of fishing. His friend turned to him, "You know what. I have an idea." Billy's father's grandfather rolled his eyes, "Oh, yeah? What is it?" His friend told him, "I think we should make some kind of walkway here so that we don't have to sit in the dirt." Billy's father's grandfather laughed, "Why? That's just going to encourage people to come out here. Soon, you'll have a bunch of crap stories about people falling in love or remembering old times. Nobody like those stories."

OH WOE TO ThE WATER BOTTLE

he whom they once did flip

and not ignored

plastic in the OCEAN

KILLING The pplAnET

oof

the wheel

comes to a

screeching

halt

gravity

has ceased

and the dust settles

on the hourglass

the ticks

are quieted

and the only thing left

is silence.