Under normal circumstances, being denied access to all electronics for a month would already be extreme, unthinkable even. Things hadn't been normal for a while. Those screens were her school, her mall,

If you must quote me Spare a thought for the people I have been or will be Frankly We Won't always agree I may shrink or grow Learn things I don't yet know I may change my mind Over time I might find Concepts

It was expected that the judges would politely applaud, thank her and move on to the obvious favorite. It hadn't taken long to discover the pageant was rigged and now the contestants were upset, the audience

Your footsteps Grew quieter Quieter Then silence And it was The end But not Far from forgotten The loose ends That would fray The moment you Stepped away The awkwardness Would tell Things you once hid

After 5 minutes on what the planet's inhabitants called "social media", it was abundantly clear that they could not reveal themselves openly. Even minor differences in opinion or appearance could

So... am I rich yet? Can I quit yet? I want to lay back For a bit That’s not too much To ask Is it?? Fine I’d be lying if I said that that was all No, I want to have a ball Want to have it all Really have

The yard was infested with snails ranging from slightly larger than a pinhead to roughly the size of a young piglet. Hundreds of the critters oozed across the once-perfect Zen garden devouring all that

Say no When the inner liar Tries to steal your face Say no Don’t let your soul Get lost In that twisted place Where the nice words Dull your senses So you can numbly Kill your light Dumbly ignore What’s

Mr. Sunshine was a loving bird. His vocabulary was huge and he had a compliment for every creature he encountered whether friend, family or stranger. "Looking sharp!" "Wow, you're good at

Opportunity knocked First quietly With the barely there sound Of millions of Digital pennies hitting the web Like a gentle rain Then Opportunity knocked Again With a deluge The old systems couldn’t contain

The market had seen better days. No. Understatements like that were worse than lies. They offered a glimmer of hope in a situation that was clearly, utterly hopeless. That was the kind of 'hope' that led

Ahem... Mic check One, two One, two I practiced the song I meant to perform For you I chose carefully I was going to do it today But on the first take The camera was facing the wrong way Most of the other

The letter was a bit of an old-fashioned touch but some sentiments needed the tangibility of ink and paper to be properly conveyed. After all, the child had questions, so many questions, that would never

Hear me out I’m pulling out My best words Hoping maybe one or two Will get through to you I’m dusting off the diagrams Wishing I could help you understand If I keep talking Maybe Eventually I might get

It took an obscene amount of time and storage but she'd finally done it. 365 bowls of cereal, 365 sandwiches and 365 salads. The mere thought of weekly meal prep made her shudder. No, this way was definitely

Now that I'm here My eyes don't Seem to want to close Like they did Just a moment ago Now that I'm here I can hear my thoughts Race and chatter On things that don't matter Randomly Relentlessly Rest tends

They walked in with their heads high, confidence on their shiny little faces not knowing that were about to be slaughtered. Not literally, of course! But she had trained her debate team to be ruthless.

Weren’t you the man? Were you not everyone’s hero? Oh yeah That was you Weren’t you the man? Were you not Positively legendary? And didn’t you have a plan? Wasn’t this supposed to be easy? Or was that

Be the tree Be the air Be the sky The sea Be anything Live freely Take hold of bliss Claim that cosmic kiss Be the grass Be the sand Be the glass Be the wine And the water Be the book And the author Leaves,

"Acute pancreatitis?" "Yup." That was new. The previous late assignments had been blamed on the flu, her very hungry dog, an unscheduled power outage and the deaths of no fewer than