a young writer from the lone star state

Skies of Texas

 

 

You and I know very well

of those two hundred and fifty

miles between us;

too many roads,

too many hours,

too many gallons of gas,

and too many cups of coffee.

 

At night we’d hear each other’s voice;

I would listen to you sing,

I would make you laugh,

and we’d gaze at those stars—

too many stars, like dreams,

uncountable,

in the skies of Texas

 

I loved you more than that.

I loved you more than all that space

between you and I—

More than all those roads,

more than all those hours,

more than all those stars,

and that sky that holds them all.

 

Now it’s all falling on me,

all that pressure is too much to bear—

Oh skies of Texas!

I’m suffocating.

It’s hot, it’s heavy,

I miss you,

and it burns like hell.

 

I hope your midterms went well

and that you have a peaceful

break Pablo

 

I hope you have been doing

alright Pablo

 

Hey I just wanted to make sure

you are okay

 

I hope that someday,

Your sky will fade

or that, at least,

you’re burning too.

 

A Photo in a Frame

 

After a weekend away,

I reenter my bare room,

return to a cold moment

that’s been completely still since

our last talk together; when

her little voice said Goodbye

 

I find our old picture, framed—

such a lovely photograph

inside bold and bright red wood.

I turn it over, face down

because all those memories

still hurt, still burn, still sting me

 

Quickly, I put together—

inside an ugly black frame—

a small sheet of red cardstock

on which I made a short note;

with a simple black sharpie

I wrote, I will be okay.

 

I put away our photo

in a small red paper bag

inside my little closet—

I

can’t

bear

to

hold

the

thought

of

throwing

it

all

away.

Howdy Y’all,

I have been absent from this blog for a while now and I would like to make a brief update.

I was hospitalized and in critical condition in the middle of December. This event has changed my life for the better. I am glad to say that I almost back to normal now — I lost a lot of weight while I was in the hospital but I hope get back into shape soon. You can expect a creative non-fictional account of the ordeal fairly soon as I have an opportunity to document the event for one of my courses.

I am now also in my final semester as a undergraduate student at Texas A&M, WHOOP! Although I am saddened to leave the university when I graduate in May, I am also excited to see where life will take me.

While I am in my final semester, I’m also taking one more creative writing course with Dr. White. I expect to post three stories from that course to this blog.

For now, I will post the previous stories I have written for your enjoyment. I hope to keep improving my prose and story-telling ability.

I hope everyone’s year is off to a great start — I am happy and ready to progress through the year!

 

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be very careful about what we pretend to be.”

I suppose that when people hear the name Kurt Vonnegut, books like Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle come to mind. There isn’t really a problem with that — those are both great books.

Vonnegut wrote a lot of books, but there is one in particular that I don’t often see mentioned in Vonnegut discussions and that is Mother Night. First published in 1962, the book talks about Howard W. Campbell Jr., who also makes a brief appearance in Slaughterhouse-Five. Campbell is an infamous Nazi propagandist who broadcasted pro-Nazi lectures over the radio during WWII. He’s now awaiting execution in Isreal for his war crimes. Except, he was never really a Nazi. He was actually an American spy tasked with sending strategic messages secretly through his lectures.

There’s a hell of a funny bit (or harrowing bit — you know how Vonnegut likes to blend the dark side of humanity with comedy) when Campbell sends a broadcast but, unbeknownst to him, he’s actually telling his Ally supervisor that his wife has died. He literally announces the death of his wife without knowing it. It’s a hell of a moment in the book.

Vonnegut said that this book is his most moral book. This guy, Campbell, he’s not Nazi — he’s just pretending, right? Well, Vonnegut says no — by pretending to be a Nazi, Campbell becomes one.

There’s a definition of Tragedy that I think is good to mention here. Tragedy may be understood as when two characters, both of whom are right, come into conflict. It is easy to say that truth trumps falsity. But what happens when truth faces off against truth? That is exactly what happens in this novel. It’s a disturbing ethical exercise.

I would not have picked up Mother Night had I not seen a suggested video on my YouTube feed in which Vonnegut discusses the book. I have no regrets. I can easily say this is my favorite Vonnegut work,

You ought to read it.

This summer, for the Fourth of July holiday, I went to Mena, Arkansas. Specifically, the Wolf Pen Gap ATV trails that run through all the beautiful trees, rivers, and mountains that are in Mena.

It’s nothing but amazing. I think I’m going back for Thanksgiving. My whole family will be there. Even my sister that lives in Alaska.

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There’s no cellular service in that area except for a very weak signal that reaches the tops of the mountains. But service isn’t necessary. You spend hours upon hours riding through the place, running into deer and over quiet little rivers. It’s just a whole different world out there.

It was so green. And for Thanksgiving, I’ll be able to return to all those trees, rivers, and mountains in all their Autumnal beauty. I’ll be sure to take photos then.

Regarding the photos in the slideshow; I’ve been in planes before, but I had never been so personally close to clouds before. All that land, in view, felt so small. I felt like I could step off the mountain as a giant and touch the clouds with my fingers. It’s a crazy feeling, like magic. It’s such a nice thing, to see all that beautiful land and nature without hundreds of buildings and streets and power lines and signs all over the place. I kinda wonder what the world would look like without humans. That view ought to have been close.