My Cardboard Balcony

Apart from my teaching jobs and my freelance writing, I am also an independent musician. You probably haven't noticed, but in the contact section, I did add a new link. It's to my fairly recent Myspace page, where I have audaciously uploaded some of my demo songs. I've sent the tracks to a very good friend of mine - who also happened to be a bandmate of mine in a band known as the Castle Town Convicts - so he can add some more parts to them and polish them up a bit. The tracks, either way, are rough, first draft, and daring. That aside, I'm happy I put them up. The thing that strikes me the most is that unlike other forms of writing, musical composition for me has always been more sporadic. I tend to have much longer lapses with my songwriting than my writing not only because I've forced myself to make my creative writing more routine, but also because I find it more difficult to write songs than poems, stories, and scripts. And why not? Music is an entirely di

The Effects of Love by Belinda Roddie Getting to know you and love you was one of the harder things in life Especially because of your so very charming and noble wife Who kept everything so perfectly clean, like the feminine being Which from the surface of society I’ve been trying to glean And now here we are, once more, on the patio by the front door And I wait for you to loosen my collar and kiss and heal the sores Upon my throat, all festering, as I muster up the strength To clasp your fingers in mine and breathe you in at length Getting to know you and love you was one of the hardest things in life But don’t worry, you won’t have to think about your jealous wife I took care of her in the kitchen with a fork and knife The work you see here has not been edited nor altered since June 11th, 2007.

"There's a towel on the doorknob," said Danny. "Is that code for something?" "Not sure." I chewed at my jerky a bit longer, but the salty residue left me a little unimpressed. Danny was still looking at me, like he was expecting me to finally divulge the truth like it was a riddle that neither of us had figured out yet. I matched his gaze exactly. "Seriously, it's probably Joe not putting his towel away. We're fine."