Day after Christmas, A day that should be happy for most people, A day closer to the close of another year, A day of contemplation, work, and more contemplation, A day of some discontent and apathy and yearning for bygone Christmases of yore. A day of wanting adventure and Exodus…
Continue Reading...Author: Matthew Rodriguez
Sitting in the Dark Imagining
I’m out here sitting in the dark listening to the bugs and the little toads out here in the woods, staring at the night sky looking at the stars and I’m imagining my dad up there talking to Bukowski the poet, novelist. I just see my dad talking to Bukowski…
Continue Reading...Croupier
Croupier smoking a cigarette, hesitates picking up the red phone; His father has a job for him, he doesn’t want it. “Jacko, call Mr. Reynolds at the Golden Lion Hotel.” I’m reminded of the little room in the school library where I called my father up every day at noon…
Continue Reading...Se ese man
Se ese man que lo hizo desde una torre que le heredó su padre. Se ese man que moría por aventura y lo hizo sin un peso en el bolsillo. Se ese man que lo hizo en libretas viejas y bolígrafos con poca tinta. Se ese man que lo hizo…
Continue Reading...Mentor
Sometimes I think about being for someone else what I needed the most and lost to time and death. Mentors like fathers are not immune to the call from the beyond. They may leave you at any time like the tobacco that sits on the purple table blown away to…
Continue Reading...Mateo
You know, one of the good things about not looking at your mass surveillance device all the time is that you get to listen to people talk, you know? You find out that the supermarket girl is pregnant, and she and her guy can’t decide on a name. “Mateo, I…
Continue Reading...Aquí
Aquí voy yo imaginándome cosas, cosas que podrían ser, pero no son. Aquí mientras recojo la cama escuchando a los hermanos cantar en la casa de mi madre y mi padre. Aquí que solo me han dejado. Aquí donde la miré ayer desde el otro lado del jardín. Donde lágrimas…
Continue Reading...The Tow Truck
So, the car had been sitting there for months, man. Wasps had already made it their home –right above the front tires. I had let it sit there on purpose, because I was under some delusion that I was on my way back to the States to make it big.…
Continue Reading...The Struggle
Another Cripmas around the corner and she quarrels over some Christmas sticks I put around the house, so it’ll smell good till we put the tree up. Reading the paper I have an outburst, thought she’d appreciate the fresh sniffs, but I was wrong. So often good acts unnoticed, but…
Continue Reading...Cuarto creciente
Desde la primera planta escucho a tres señores decirme que estoy perdiendo el tiempo pensando, mientras observo al caldero y escucho las palomitas reventar. “Fuerza de voluntad y disciplina”, me recuerda la voz del doctor. Un hombre de diversos negocios; un hombre de consejos. Me muestra una foto de un…
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