..>> excerpts schmexcerpts <<..

this is some of what i'm working on!
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But those eyes, she thought to herself, I could lose myself forever in their depths. They were the most astonishing shade of blue, full of deep, brilliant facets. And for an instant, she was swimming amongst schools of tropical fish, waves of aquamarine and quartz and peridot. Pools that harbored profound, unique creations, which she longed to dive further into. To taste with the tips of her eyelashes. He coughed and it broke her from her reverie, face blushing from standing so close to him.

Slowly they made their way up the hill, trains singing siren songs and traveler’s lullabies in the distance as they talked.They walked across a bridge that covered the highway. Below them, the traffic was relentless, throbbing and strumming like fantastic mechanical insects, dreaming of electricity and crossed wires. The street was a beatbox, the pulse was continuous and her heart played right along.They walked past men who used the pavement for pillows and concrete for shoes, whose bellies were leaden and empty.They walked thru groups of kids that wore the night like a skin and who cursed their suburbia for being safe and numb, for being easy to sell, easy to digest and easy to forget.

As they walked and their laughter started to obscure the noises surrounding them, their words became so thick and luxuriant, that neither one realized that the sky had become dim and murky. She looked to her left, where the telegraph poles stretched to the sunset, where the dithyrambic and blazing days end and coat everything in the deepest red. In those few seconds, she basked in the cannibal flower that still remained.

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Jesse peeled himself off the green velvet couch and went to the kitchen. He walked slow and hunched, like a cat in need of a good stretch.
When he returned, Stacey’s water in hand, he heard what had made her face turn the color of infection. Two rooms away, Matt and Connie were fighting. Jesse returned to the couch and put the T.V on, but Stacey stayed in the same position, sipping on her water which cooled her throat like calla lilies and airport sprinklers. She couldn’t make out anything that was being said, but she could recognize sounds. sounds that reminded her of scared seashells, broken hearts and shaking hands, of bruises beneath weathered eyes.

“Hey Jesse, can you do me a favor?” She placed her glass atop the scared table. “Can you tell Matt I had to catch my train, but that I’ll give him a ring tomorrow?”

“No problem. Nice meeting you!” Jesse waved goodbye from his velvety island.

“Yeah, you too!”

Stacey was almost out the door when Matt emerged from his bedroom. The strength of his face was falling quickly, edges of character melting away.

“Where are you going?”

“I just realized the time. My train leaves in 20 minutes!”
She was lying of course.There was a train twice hourly to her station, but she couldn’t stand being in this house anymore. Not with the fighting or the millions of memories that could never be hers.
“I’ll call you tomorrow though, and we can arrange another time to do your hair.”

He explored her face with eyes that cut as deeply as shards of glass. Suddenly she felt the walls close in around her, the tyranny of unhappiness, the oppression of his relationship. The life between these walls reeked of a drawn out death, a life without freedom and passion, of stifling and choking consequences.

As she walked out into the night where the stars were her cover and the moon shone caged and crazy as a halo, Stacey grabbed Matt’s hand. A hand calloused and full of deep valleys, hiding stories his brain couldn’t even recall. She coveted those valleys in her palms and spoke soft and low.

“I promise,” she lulled “I will call you tomorrow.”

Before this night, they had never seen each others faces. And strangely enough, to each other, they both looked extremely familiar, like looking at the other, was like looking into a window and seeing their reflection.Maybe they had crossed paths in their city, perhaps they were victims of periphery, but now, tonight, underneath the sky sodden with stars, her eyes promised everything to him and they were no longer strangers.