My Cardboard Balcony

As I sat at my computer, after showing my girlfriend two videos, one of them being a slam poem about What Teachers Make, I realized that despite feeling sluggish after a huge meal at the local diner and now trying to settle my bloated stomach in 74 degree weather at ten o'clock at night, I still had to write an introspection. The truth was that even though I had a lot to talk about - my obviously positive feelings about DOMA and Prop 8 being dropped and the stay on same-sex marriage in California being lifted; the happiness I felt about my girlfriend staying for the weekend; the prospect of being at Pride during one of the most momentous weeks for the LGBT community - I didn't feel compelled to write about any of it because there's only so much you can wring a rag until the text that leaks out becomes stale and repetitive, like the monotonous drip-drop-drips of the remaining strains of water. I left the lid of my ginormous laptop open and let my body fall against my bed.

Tyler Clementi by Belinda Roddie It’s a damn shame to see a young man die. The bow dances on six strings before the musician stops playing, jumps off the bridge and  disappears beside quiet sailboats. It’s a nightmare scenario, and you’d expect him to rise up in a cold sweat, and the last thing you’d want to do is go back to sleep, but what he really doesn’t want to do is wake up. I’ll dream again, but I pray to God that I stay away from bridges and lonely boats that shuffle back from the scene on wavy feet. The work you see here was written in October of 2010. It was last edited on June 14th, 2012.

Joshua held the beautiful blue balloon and let the last bit of string coil around his index finger, so the sphere could go as high above his head as possible without letting go. His sister, Jessie, watched with jealousy as the beautiful, airy orb floated close to her eyes. But she hugged her prize stuffed dog to her chest and looked out at the scary roller coaster - the big black one with two loops, the one she had been dared to ride.