Oneshots

freeze

the girl walks head down feels the whole world stop as she looks up at the sky catching eyes with the stars twinkling bravely through the night as though nothing about the dark scares them enough to cover their heads with the blanket praying for sleep praying to make it through the night preying on all the fears of the weak the writers who no longer feel the pain have gone to bed long ago the girl walks on brave like the stars finding bravery in the lack of bravery in the world.

freeze.

the bums outside 7-11 share a smoke share a laugh share tiny sips from the bottle like sharing hopes fears and dreams no longer watching for that cop no longer afraid of his stick found the punch in the head the same in the morning whether it's from violence or alcohol laughing trying to forget that the stars are there they have lost the childlike beauty long before they even knew there was something beautiful about them and they haven't forgotten to look up just shield their eyes once the sun goes down shield their eyes from the incredible light they see once the sky goes dark because they know that sort of miracle isn't appreciated is feared by the rest of the world laughing as they take sips because they know they're the last sane ones left laughing because there is nothing else left to do.

freeze.

the cop sits in his cop car cop badge cop hat cop hands shaking as he lifts the radio to his mouth not sure what to say to the dispatch had the same job all his life and still afraid always afraid of messing up like that little boy in him who dropped the ball in the final game watching the faces of his team faces of his coach faces of the spectators violent eyes all blaming him for his mistakes faces of the boy not ten years younger than he looking up begging stars glimmering in his eyes please don't shoot please don't shoot i know i shot first but i can't stand to think of the look on my mama's face when she hears i messed up this badly i know i messed up cop hands shaking on the wheel he says "i'm on it" cop hands shifting into reverse shifting the car out into the night.

freeze.

mama's sitting at the table empty handed empty stomach empty heart wonders where her boy's at he's never home no more always out with his friends out with his girl out of his mind trying to find it somewhere at the bottom of that dropper she smiles at the days when the only needles he knew were the ones of the doctor hiding crying in her arms shh shh my boy it's going to be okay just a little prick and you won't even remember you were here she looks at the clock almost three am wondering where her boy's at wondering at how the dust stacked up around her how they've all just become photographs in empty frames wishing she took more pictures but it's too late now it's almost three am.

freeze.

the kids down the street stop their games look at the clock for the first time in months forgotten it was there under boxes of games boxes of pizza boxes of condoms never used just to show off look how i got some last night i've got an empty wrapper and they never even pull back the curtains to look at the stars anymore just busy staring at the sky on their monitor until the pixels burn their eyes always bloodshot always smoky never the same eyes from when they were kids and they stared down that kid who dropped the ball never the same eyes they greeted their friends' mothers with and they haven't been those kids since they stopped coming home stopped leaving home never needed a reason to come home in the first place.

freeze.

the man hunched over his computer screen full ashtray typing words he can't even see anymore not even words just code always code always numbers and letters never the words he was so good at spelling back in elementary school and he digs back tries to find something beautiful about bony knees and scraped knuckles scraped knees and bony knuckles and he takes a drag off the end of his imagination and shakes his head cursing that it's never the same punch to the skull that his nicotine is.

freeze.

the bomb goes off in a shower of sparks and the whole world freezes as the girl looks up she can see the stars laughing down at the people below knowing they cannot be touched by something as dangerous daunting deadly as human recklessness and the girl wonders why she has gone on struggling to walk when she never was to make it home in the first place.

freeze.