M.K. Lee's Blog: Telling Tales, page 101

Seek

Imagery alone is not palette enough to describe the feeling.

But without paint to brush or chalk to smudge, it’s what we seek.

Clouds roll in like slickened driving wheels on freshly greased tracks

Gaining momentum, distended bellies threatening birth of something bleak.

A cluster of voices clamber and cackle for attention

Like crowds gathering before gallows, awaiting death,

Jostling and judging and goading into actions

That rip flesh apart, leave lungs gasping for breath.

Silences screams...

Winter Musings

Emerald and peridot fade into topaz and russet, and soon there is nothing remaining even from them, bare branches stretching tall into the sky against a backdrop of sapphire and crystal. Mid-winter leaches colour from everything yet need not be bleak. There is feasting, there is family, there is fruitfulness, the promise of new life, new beginnings, new dreams. No good story is a smooth slip between beginning and end; life is the bit in the middle that makes both ends meet, that makes it...

Winter Tales – Flurries

[image error]

“It says there are flurries expected all day,” Matthias says when Max comes downstairs with their bags. He hates driving in any bad weather, but the snow makes him worry even more.

“It’ll be fine. Flurries doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Could be slippery,” Matthias says in doubt, glancing at the weather forecast on TV once more before raising the remote to switch it off.

“We’ll be fine,” Max insists, wrapping an arm around his waist in reassurance, leaning in to claim a kiss.

“The heating’s on...

Bearer Of The Sun

He’s got blood on his hands and death on his soul,
And the only part he’s ever played is a role.

Impaled on his own portcullis. Shield, heavy and worn,
Deflects. Reflects back self-hatred and borrowed scorn.

When dawn comes calling, it is he who has averted perpetual night,
And, like Bearer Of The Sun, he is the spirit that moves the light,

But still. No peace can yet be granted to him,
He, who does not know what it is to have hope within.

Whatever Comes First

[image error]

Matthew isn’t looking for a relationship. Ask him, and he’ll say it’s because between work and studying there’s just no time. Ask his best friend, Sarah, and the story is a little different and involves a failed relationship that left him raw.

Enter Joel, a childhood friend of Sarah’s recently back in the area. He’s not looking for love, either, but he’s not averse to the idea of a little fun. Uncomplicated and on the same page: what could possibly go wrong?

Buy Whatever Comes First.

Winter Tales – Thaw

[image error]

“How is it so cold?”

Matthias would answer but he is too busy copying what Max has just done. Diving beneath the duvet on their bed and curling up into a ball.

“I guess it’s winter,” he says, a pointless response that only reveals just how hard his teeth are chattering. When they’ve shivered into their sheets for enough seconds to feel the heat building around them they turn on to their sides facing one another, hands tangled in between.

“Whose idea was it to go for a walk?” Max asks as he...

Clock Watching

I set a dual analogue clock on my phone
So that I can span the world between yours and mine.
Each glance guessing the likely events of your day,
Clock watching for contact, feeling asinine.

Each hand ticks down all the things that you might be doing.
Every second a painful beating in my chest.
This could be the minute that you choose to discard me.
In an hour I’ll tell myself, it’s for the best.

Because time races onwards, people are cast aside,
Neglected by the life you’ve resigned to lead.
...

Winter Tales – Earmuffs

[image error]

Max’s ears are bright pink. He’s bundled up in a scarf and gloves but refuses to wear a hat, complaining that they always give him a headache.

“You’ll freeze,” Matthias tells him, tugging him closer as though that might make any kind of difference. He presses a kiss to the shell of Max’s ear, smiling as he ducks away.

“I’ve managed all these years.”

“Yeah. And how many of those years have you complained about being cold?”

“All of them,” Max replies, nudging him back.

“We could get matching...

A Christmas Surprise

Jack’s got it all planned out. Christmas morning, sat at the foot of his parent’s overindulgent Christmas tree, with literal logs crackling on the fire in the hearth, Macy, the seven-year-old Bassett Hound that his Mom insisted on buying when his younger brother Ollie went off to college, sulking because she, too, is waiting to open her presents, and, probably, his heart pounding so hard, that it’ll take him a couple of swallows before he can get his words out: that’s when he’ll do it. Jack’s...

Sparse

So lost today.
I want to run, but my legs are marble.
I want to hide, but I’m too exposed.
I want to be, but I’m done with living.
I want to go, but I have no home.

I’m broken.
Normally, so happily fragmented,
Scattered far, and sparse, and wide,
Running from a sense of being needed,
Desperate for something, but what, I cannot decide.

I do not belong.
And I’m going nowhere.
But I don’t fear that I’ll drag you along.
Because it’s been an age since you have been there,
And now I question all...