a limited number of pieces that have an infinite array of possibilities.
more combos than a rubik's cube.
more count than the visible stars in the night sky.
with these 26 symbols one can convey a serious thought, a comedic event or incite a war.

Where was he? Nowhere. I barely even knew what he looked like, let alone how to know it was really truly him when I met him. Maybe he wasn't coming. Maybe he thought I'd try to cheat, or bail on him. Would I really do that if I had the choice? Oh, yeah. I'd be out of there before you could blink.

People were milling around on the busy sidewalks, and it was all I could do to catch a look at each and every one of them, just to make sure. It was like ants had invaded me, crawling under my skin and making me prance on my feet. My nerves were practically bouncing.

And then there he was.

Normally a dingbatter playing in the ocean wouldn't have drawn my attention, but this one looked like he was searching for something. Two days prior there was a musty seal skin under that same pier, half buried under damp sand, tide washing up over it. I wondered if that was what he was searching for. A strange thought, but it was the only thing that made sense of his obvious frustration.
Freezing, the man's eyes moved toward me, pegging me in place with an uncanny lavender stare. His head slowly turned to follow them, a face too far away to make out from where I was seated, yet somehow I felt his ire at being observed. It radiated toward me on invisible waves as he moved, taking heavy, awkward steps toward me. He walked with a slight drag to his step, a stumble that reminded me of a three-year-old's uncertain toddle. Though the man headed my way was much less focused on where he was putting his clumsy feet in relation to the sand and far more interested in whatever homicidal fantasies were playing through his mind.
The thought to run came and went. It was tourist season. With dingbatters everywhere, there was no way he could hurt me without being noticed. And I was probably imagining things anyway. When she was alive, Mama always told me I had my head too far in the clouds to ever see the ground.

Silence comes before
the first breathe

As it comes before the last

Pick up your flag (take up your cross), it’s too late
the war horses are coming
and they come with hate

and silence comes before the first breathe
as it comes before the last

"Yelp!" she spun around and squinted against the dying light. A man and his dog silhouetted against a blackened sky. Concentrating she could hear his laughter and the yips of excitement from his companion.
She sighed heavily.
"I have to see this through. I can't end it like this. I owe it to... to myself." she thought as she began the trek to the beach house.
Once there, she grabbed a glass of wine and sat outside.
The abyss of sky yawned hungrily, seemed eager to snuff out our tiny sphere.
The patterns of the stars were turning toward oblivion. The calculations, occult mathematics shrouded by ages, did not lie.
These last nights, worrying as gravity wells and cosmic rays clicked into place, were all she had left.
It was a cruel burden, this knowledge. Better to be ignorant and momentarily shocked as the world is consumed by fire.

Winter’s freshness has unfolded,
Tucking away the fall land.
Firewood hibernating on the floor
As Jack Frost shakes my hand.

The hunger of a fiery stove,
Stave not the cold wind’s breath.
These walls unclothed save the outer slats
With cracks running a breadth.

Nate put the car in reverse, “Florida’s a dead end. It has been since the recession. You’ve been out of work for more than five years. When I got laid off, I knew there was nothing left here for us.”
Lila looked in the rear view mirror as they pulled away. She’d miss the life they built here. She’d miss all the things that made their little apartment home—things they had to leave behind. “Right—well, let’s get coffee. Four in the morning is too early, even for a grand adventure.”
Nate smiled at her, “An adventure?”
“Yes, an adventure Nate. We’re moving twenty-five hundred miles in the car. We’ll go through states we’ve never been to before, and it’s easier for me to look at it as an adventure.”
“Adventure it is then.” He squeezed her hand, “Where do you want to stop for coffee?”

This is about clowns. To some they are the jesters of the world, starting in the old world of knights and kings. Jesters, in all practicality, specifically trained to entertain royalty. Making the long nights bearable and the days reserved only for monstrosities committed in English wars. Today we call them jokesters of youth. We can usually find these clowns at birthday parties, circuses, and even famous restaurants.
The fear of them can be immense. The ugly faces painted upon one's face even in humor can be frightening. They remind some humans of monsters we can see but hide well behind masks. John Wayne Gacy was a nightmare perfect example of the horrors associated with the jolly victors of what is behind the mask.

"Essence we need to leave" my father called me. So I made my way down from my room wandering from my window, I stalked down the stairs dragging my fingernails down the wooden bannister, my dress draping over the stairs, the servants opened the doors for me and I was helped into the carriage. I sat opposite my parents and with one tap with the whip on the horses rumps they galloped off and we headed to the centre of London.

It was a long ride from our manor, but once we arrived we all got out of the carriage, I flicked the hood up and walked into the council chamber. Everyone nodding at me as I walked, I stood at my parents side and I had to remain silent since it was improper for a woman as young as myself to speak. I stood there listening to their meaningless chatter. They were talking about taking over most of the plantations in the area. A chat that a young woman such as myself should know since I would inherit the family legacy when my parents pass.

Purple shadows twisted their way over the gleaming city of Rio de Janeiro. What was once a large bay rimmed by pristine beach front had been replaced with a sea of large solar panels. Their sensitive cells began to be covered with automatically deployed steel doors. This created a great metal wave that could only be witnessed by the airships that gently floated among the cityscape. They rose up from the canyons of steel to hover over the city. Precisely placed warning lights flickered to life, creating a myriad of slow dancing red stars on the increasingly inky sky. Few people on the city streets below noticed them.

Most of the pedestrians were trying their best not to get trampled by other people. This was made harder by the occasional silent truck making a human wave as it attempted to make its way to their destination. There were no other kinds of vehicles on the streets. The only real noise came from the mixing of thousands upon thousands of voices that slowly filtered up to the airships floating above.