Booked

"They have no idea how busy our lives can get here," Mom says.

"Who?" I ask.

"Your college friends," she says matter-of-factly.

Tractor pulls, golf outings, dairy breakfasts, small-town carnivals, grad parties.

Stay up late just to wake with the sun

Fortune Cookie from China Buffet:

"Time flies. Suns rise and shadows fall. Let time go by. Love is forever over all."

Small town talent

Zachary: Come Home - OneRepublic

Quinn, Fil, Dylan: Fake It (Hypocrite) - Seether

Fil, Quinn, Dylan: Sympathetic - Seether

Quinn said he was so nervous, he was shaking. I couldn't tell.

Please appreciate these incredible young men.

I love them.

Scrapbook

I found a newspaper clipping from when I was in 6th grade.

My haiku had been published:

I enjoy writing,

My words flow like a river,

flowing from my mind.

Memory(al)

Memorial Day.

I visited Elliott. I rode my brother's bike, with its uncomfortable seat, to the cemetery out of town. There were too many people, so I felt awkward. I could hear them talking about my family, as they stood by Aunie's & John's gravestones. Even the dead don't escape gossip. The sun was about to set, and it was warm. I walked up and down the rows. I stopped last at his plot and knelt down so I could brush away the grass clippings from the small stone rectangle. My mom and dad had picked out plastic yellow flowers for the head of the stone. A few times every year, we visit, but this was the first time I came alone. They always pick out nice flowers and my mom makes sure they aren't tacky. The top of the marker reads "Our Beloved Son." They didn't even know him yet, he was so young. But they loved him, and still do.

It's incredible, the amount of love I was born in to.

Comatose

there are clothes

everywhere.

on my floor,

and i leave them there.

to slowly attain wrinkles,

like the aged.

and soak in the musty smell

of the carpet that is

underneath them.

my quilt is

heavy

from the humid air

and drapes over the bed

that I spend too much time in.

looking at the thin, bright light

that shines in through the gap between

curtain

and

wall.

willing it to close,

so I can fall deeper into slumber

and

further away from

here.