Do the dead feel disappointment as the living do?
Daddy, I'm sorry, I smoke.

They were waiting in line, waiting for their change, waiting for a change and waiting for a chance to wait to be seated.

“I’m trying to remember not to wait till I’m older or wait till I’m wiser,” he said while they waited for the show to start, a show he hoped wouldn’t be the kind that he couldn’t wait for it to end. “I can’t wait to see her and I’m not just waiting for a good time”.

She waited for him to finish. “But do we have to wait for them? I hate waiting for people and waiting for things. I just can’t wait,” she said.

“I’ll wait over here, you wait over there,” he said.

“I’m not going to just stand here and wait!” she shouted. “You wait and see!”

What was she complaining about, he thought, when she was always waiting for the next one when she wasn’t waiting for The One.

“We’re all waiting. You’re waiting for me while I’m waiting for her. Wait for a little longer please?”

“They’re still waiting to hear from you, you know,” she said. “They told me it’s like waiting for rain, Bob doesn’t want to wait in vain and John’s waiting on the world to change

She stopped and waited for him to answer his cellphone, “You’re waiting for the rain to stop? Yes, yes of course, we’ll wait till you get here.”

“I’m sorry Sir, we can’t wait any longer, the show’s about to begin.” said the usher who’d been waiting to seat them.

“Ah hell,” he said while he waited for his refund, “We’ll just wait for the dvd. Hey where are you going? Wait! Wait!”

skirting the edges of consciousness

That is the greatest disappointment- finding out first hand that our parents are fallible and not immune to what is otherwise a life certainty. I lost my dad when i was 6 - nothing felt more surreal.

chop chop?

" so u gonna axe him then?"

"you know, it's kinda like a pair of comfortable jeans that you really really really like but they make your ass look big. so you only ever wear them at home. so you're thinking should i toss 'em or just wear them when no ones looking."

"predicament."

"yep"

sam plays his spade and his maltesers

She walked into the room like spring came early. The kind of broad that makes men weak in the wallet. This gumshoe saw trouble. But he wasn't the type to turn his back on trouble. Especially when it had blonde hair and a pout that said, "I need your help Dick, he's after me and I don't know where else to go..."

"Pragmatics will beat your heart to a pulp"

conversation piece

There is no after-glow when you've been fucked over by assumption.

His Family

They were neatly edging towards being labelled "hazardous:do not approach, you will grow three extra toes (and a testicle if you're a girl) on contact".

He knew his morning was shot...

... when the new sign for the smoking room read, "Cancer Loves Company".

domestic scenes... (1)

"Mommy, mommy, the ceiling is sweating."
And indeed it was.
Drops of moisture had globulised on the cheap paint. Jelly bubble-wrap, quivering gravid, threatening to drop its load as soon as we called bed-time.
"Marky! Where's that bloody landlady's number? It's been three weeks since she promised to do something about the damp in here. We're not goldfish."

She said ...

• He used to tell me the same thing - that we'd be perfect together. I told him just because I liked Metal Gear Solid doesn't mean we should procreate.

• 'Love' and variations thereof should be classified as disorders. The key thing is to never be needy. If ppl can't see that you're fucking fantastic, then best you treat yourself with more respect and tell 'em to fuck off. Likewise with him, if he doesn't catch a wake-up soon, I'm leaving him to sleep through the best thing that never happened to him.

75 cent epiphany

To Know Is to Know that You really Don't.

Wednesday's lottery draw

His dreams sell cheap at the corner shop.

But its Dior Darling...

said Mary, who just put her soul on lay-by.

bullet control

suck your thumb in ambient red. the universe ends at a point just before a crimson curtain fall.
time will soon betray and all this will be no closer than the time you missed the falling star by eyelashes. but for now, seconds sliding into their peers, is the lull, the ebb and flow of a living, giving heat. this is all you know. for now.
till one who once knew what you knew, since forgotten, takes metal to time-slapped palm, and a single shard of hurt to heart.
and while you suck your thumb in ambient red, the world forgets to take its lithium.
and an ob/gyn with a six-chambered heart and whose bedsidemanner is reassuring steel, performs your unscheduled ceasarian.

His name is

a soft sari of embroidered silk I want to wrap around myself.

the beginning of an end

“They will kill you for this love,” she cried in the anguish of a woman about to miscarry. “You will die! And for this woman…this whore,” her words spat a cold venom.

I shut my eyes and muted her torture. With the room heavy and the air so stale and oppressive, to breathe was to asphyxiate. “Peace mama, I will not ask for your blessing, only for your tolerance and understanding”. Unhearing, she melted in her desperate pool of grief.

As I walked towards the door, I passed the colourful framed aayah that hung on the wall. They were the signs of what my mother believed I had forsaken. “In the name of Allah, the most compassionate, the most merciful”. I still believed He would be.

before That Phonecall

Like a heathen who doubted her prophet, I asked for a sign.

buddy talk

I've been your friend since you puked up on me in grade school, I can tell you this. You buddy, make roadkill look attractive.

-Sheesh, I know i'm not the best looking guy around...

Well, thank God you don't harbour any of those delusions.

-But she only wants to marry me because of the money.

A woman's gotta love you for something. Be grateful.