The Quick and the Dead

Short stories. Creative experiments. Ideas that might not pan out.

Tag: nature

Vacation With A Friend

August 14th, 2026

Photo by Brandon Aten

The house was quiet

As dawn crept over the horizon

Crossing the threshold

Coming into the kitchen

Where you brewed the coffee,

The scent filling the house with

The pleasure of anticipation

A soft delight which brushed away

Delicately

Night’s depths and fatigue.

It was nothing particularly special

Sitting at your table at dawn

Listening to birdsong

Especially since mountains rose in the south

And the Pacific Ocean crashed just to the north

On an island offering

The best options for all varieties of vacationers.

No addition to the scenery could improve upon paradise

Yet

The sacredness came not in the landscape

Or the water, or the birdsong

But in the long, slow mornings

Filled with comforting stillness

A long, love-filled hug

Between two hearts, too long separated.
Twilight

June 23rd, 2023

Photo by Josh Felise

When summer is high

And the afternoon heat lingers into the evening

I sit, quiet and still,

Listening to the sounds of transition.

As the sun sinks behind the shadowy edge of the earth

The birds continue their song

And the crickets begin to hum

As the light fades, creating an in-between space

When it is no longer day, and it isn’t yet night.

It doesn’t take long

Until the birds are asleep, and the frogs emerge

And the lights in the garden spring to life

Signifying the fading away and the return

The end and the beginning

All bound together in a moment

Of perfect harmony.

As I sit and listen, wonderfully still,

Hushed by the hush,

I can almost envision how everything is possible

And I am awed by the power of the fleeting moment,

Cradled by the magic of the twilight.
On The Lakeshore

April 19th, 2022

Photo by Brian Beckwith

I had a bad breakup in my early twenties, the kind that makes you reconsider everything. Shortly afterwards, I went on a trip with my family to the Great Lakes. Lake Superior is wildly beautiful in ways that words cannot capture. That trip turned into a spiritual quest for me. There, at the water’s edge, I remember deciding that I should start being myself, instead of who I thought I should be.

Deep, endless water

Dark, angry; a grave of many men.

Waves splash, choppy white-caps crest

Are swallowed, softly crash against the shores.

It is cold. The beach stretches out for miles

Rocks, pebbles, stones. No sand.

Not here, in the north.

Summer doesn’t seem to penetrate.

Sun shines, not a cloud in the sky

But the breeze is chill and frosty.

A wide open sea

Mysterious as it is beautiful.

Compelling, my heart cries to sail off into its waters

Until I reach a brand new world.

I feel free.

I am shedding all the shackles I had

And drowning in the possibility

Of a rebirth after such an agonizing death of my heart.

Reborn on this lakeshore.

Secluded. Wild. Free.

Tag: nature

Vacation With A Friend

Twilight

On The Lakeshore