Toxic Time Machine

In this barren and hazy asylum,

Of reveries and anxious ruin,

I enter this toxic time machine,

Never knowing where the next trip will lead me,

Senses numb as the motions blur.

Now in the clutches of

the intoxication

spooling

into my steps

In the confusion, she senses

my discomfort and

leads me

away

to the waiting

room irony

synchronized to the dissolution

of her disjointed words

The broken machine to

never shuttle back;

The gears of life

Grind away, wear down

As my heart becomes exhaustive and sluggish,

This dysfunctional time machine

misses its stop by a few milliseconds,

And I lust more for the high of wasted time.

Checkmate

Compressed under violet, grey, and black sky,

I stand atop this solitary stone fortress

that grips to the mountain.

The peak emerges slightly above

the lively, biting shadows,

shaped into mechanical fog covering,

filling the invisible base of the alp

and billowing like binding claws stretched

around the rest of the world.

Beneath my feet, a chess board resides.

The dancing torch flames perform

their ritual on the squares

of  crimson and dead black.

I stand as a lone king

facing an absent enemy.

I chance the frontlines for ghosts

of the yet-to-be.

No brothers in arms take their places.

They, too, are phantoms feeding fear.

My turn is yet to come,

in this specter massacre reflected

only by scaling shadows named for Mt. Iago,

warping earth and ash as it rises.

I make my first move,

and my last,

as the mountain collapses,

darkness clawing me

into

eternity.

From a Personal Portfolio

Well, again I'm rebooting another blog (and for another surprise, a third is on the way). This time, I decided to use this platform to post some of my personal work through the years.

A majority of it will be a mix of content from my college days and new content that I've been working on as a hobby. While some will get posted on here, the stronger entries will instead be entered into various contests and publications, which is another thing I'm getting back into doing.

Glimpse of the original portfolio. I've come a long way since then.

Basically, I'm sitting on a giant pile of writing over the course of the last five years. Some of it is short fiction while others are works of poetry. I've also worked on several feature articles for a now defunct news source that I'll probably publish on here at some point. Oh, and there are a few short screenplays that I'll probably convert to short fiction (for any easier read). Basically, I'll have something new to post every week.

What's the point of this? Like I said, I'm sitting on a lot of content. I figured it would be a good way to get it out there rather than hoarding it on my computer for the next ten years. I'm not getting any younger, so I need to be more proactive with my writing and what I really want to do with it.

First ever blog/self-publication, circa 2011

The few things that I have published in the past have somehow garnered certain attention. "The Waiting Room", which was written as a social commentary essay/script/short story (it has gone through every format imaginable), was requested at one point to be turned into a stage performance by a student at a university in Australia. I still get emails sometimes requesting the original "full version", which I unfortunately lost after several drafts and rewrites (I'll find it someday).

It just feels so good to know that people are reading and appreciating a true passion of mine, and I'm very thankful to anyone who took the time to read my content.

I may not always have the best stories or the most concise writing. I know I have flaws in my writing and I'm constantly working to improve myself. I believe this will also be a reason to keep working at what I enjoy doing.

Feel free to drop me a line with any suggestions, constructive criticism, etc. I want to remain interactive with this community, no matter how big or small it may be. Because I truly appreciate each individual that would take the time to read my work. You are my motivation to continue on with what really interests me. You and my crazy ideas.

Thank you. Seriously, you guys are great.