for hours and hours

he lies

down

but doesn’t sleep

“Can’t sleep when your

eyes aren’t

tired,” he says

but his eyes are

beyond tiredness. They’re dead.

Been fished out

quite expertly

a long time ago by a

very unfortunate, very unhappy

mother who couldn’t stand

looking into them

“Bitch should’ve gouged

her own then,” he says

these days, laughing and

making jokes about it

Not a lot of

people

find them funny though

but that’s all right

he’s not some standup comedian

No, he sits down

on the park bench

and plays the guitar

from noon to morning

for eager audiences of

dead children

who look up to him as a hero

Sometimes

real people

even throw coins at him

sometimes

even food

And all his songs

are about

cheering

and loving life

-BOGDAN DRAGOS

Bogdan Dragos supervises casinos for a gambling company, working twelve-hour…

“The earlier you start in

life,

the better you’ll get,” she said. “That

is, of course, if you

keep going. If you don’t give

up on your dream.”

“Wise words,” I said

She smirked at that. “You bet. So in your

case, you say you started writing

at twenty. That means you

can’t be that good

of a writer. There weren’t too many years

since then. You’re not even thirty

yet. You must really

suck at writing actually.”

I shrugged. “Probably. I don’t know.

I’m not sharing my work

with a lot of people. But what about you?

When did you start beating

at your craft?”

She let out a

very condescending whistle

as she looked up. “I started dancing

at nine,” she said. “Like, every

evening. My big brother would

call me to

his room and give me

candy bars and cans of coke if…