After-school basketball was humiliating: choose up sides with whomever wanted to play. Could have eight or nine players to each side. Pushing, bumping and hacking. No ref. I was usually last, way after the good guys, the medium guys, and the girls. The junk guys had to play defense. Shirts versus skins, except for the…

You Asked I never wore Obsession, that spicy fragrance sold at Macy’s.  But it’s what happens when     something interests me, like ostrich ranching for its feather plumes, humungous eggs, and     leather.  Then, there’s Kdramas that drug me with the push-pull romance, mystery, horror,and comedy in every season.  Or, that nudibranch I found in the froth…

pink painted Ko’olau Mountains ohu clinging tightly to their flanks dark blue ocean waters releasing rising sun reluctantly birth of a glorious new day spreading silently across Oahu a day for swimming and surfing for delightful play and childish laughter for dipping toes into the ocean letting sand run through your fingers until the sun…

I came this close.  That “in the very next breath” thing.  It took all he had to gesture, get me on my knees because he had something to spill.  You know, how you’re a second away from finally knowing what’s what.  I dropped down beside him and got my ear real close to his lips. …

Lotta stuff going on.  Finally, here’s the second writing contest prompt message for December.  Remember, this month’s entries must be EXACLTY 90 words. From “Sun,” by Darrell H.Y. Lum Sun. A transistor plays fuzzy, too-loud rock’n roll. Sweat trickles down my chest, over my belly, and fills my navel. Sun. Crab crawls slow.  Seaweed stinks….

Letting Go   Letting go is hard for me, I hang on to men way past the expiration date In hopes things will change, and we can work it out. I have learned to let go of men like that But hang on to books, They are the milestones of my life— I keep books…

He came to me while dusting, stirring a passage to a past the color of smooth chocolate, suspended in sweet uncertainties.   We were in seventh grade, sharing the same social studies and English classes. He wore glasses and gravitas sublime and unknowable.   I wore a nervous smile, fell mute in his presence. He…

If I jump into waters Be it sorrow that floods Or would it be water I swallow near the bank Ruptured and inundated Something of life So near to be What is beneath The waters, sorrow The last release As if this was Or could not be Of some thought cold A desire to be…

he lies on stainless steel cold body on cold metal   he was warm once though somebody’s son somebody’s brother somebody’s husband somebody’s father   but that was before the killers came   he did what we all do he breathed then the killers took his breath away   we know the killers cannot see…

Here are two possible prompts for this month’s writing contest.  You can always come up with your own.  This month we’re going to go for EXACTLY 90 words.  That’s not 89 words, and it’s not 91 words.  This piece, prose or poetry, or any hybrid you want to try, can be only 90 words EXACTLY….