John Lehr has appeared on everything from GEICO commercials (as a caveman) to the series JailBait and 10 Items or Less (both of which can be found for free on Crackle). Most recently he has be found on the Hulu-original series Quick Draw as sheriff John Hoyle. The most impressively fully improvised, series offers up comedy Wild West style.

What was it like growing up in Kansas? Do you think your early environment fostered an active imagination early on?

My childhood was VERY Steven Spielberg (circa his ET phase). My brother and I were both latch key kids so we had a ton of freedom. However instead of using this freedom for imaginative play, we chose to blow things up, TP peoples’ houses, look at my dad’s Playboys and watch a TON of TV.

 Does imagination come in handy when doing improv as you often have? What do you love most that particular style of acting?

Yes. In all seriousness full on improv (which is what we do on 10 Items, JailBait and Quick Draw) is intense left brained stream of consciousness. It’s a fantastic experience when you can successfully switch off the logic/judgment side of yourself and let her rip. Although, when you do that, some pretty twisted stuff can come out.

What is it like working on a fully improvised show? What is the most challenging thing you face when filming that sort of thing?

The shooting process is unlike any other set. Nancy (my writing partner who directs all the show) and I write really detailed scripts but a) the scripts contain no dialogue and b) the actors never see the scripts. This creates a really easy going atmosphere even though what’s really going on is pure chaos. The most challenging part comes in the edit room when we have to glue it all together.

Before becoming an actor you taught elementary school. What was it like? What did you learn from that whole experience? Do you ever miss it?

I learned that it is HARD. It’s grueling, demanding, low-paying work and anyone who chooses that profession should get serious pay and the promise of a never-ending dilaudid drip. I certainly miss the fun parts but I just don’t have the guts for that work. I worked in inner city classrooms and later, when I moved to LA, I subbed high school in South Central.

How did you first find yourself involved in acting?

I loved Forensics in high school (speech not the science of dead bodies) and some theater but I had no intention really of going into acting. I was accepted to Northwestern University and intended to study education when my mom encouraged me to audition for the theater department. I got it but it was really the Mee-Ow Show (NU’s student improv show) that got me hooked on performing.

What led you to create the Quick Draw series? Do you think exclusive shows and content will help expand the variety of entertainment available to viewers?

Oh definitely. There are so many new distribution channels out there now. Hulu is unique in that it is not a network per se. People go there to watch TV shows they have missed. The fact that Hulu has some original programming is a bonus. We love the fact that we are not under the spotlight like a network show. People find us organically.

Nancy Hower (my writer/producer) and I had wanted to do a western for a while – we just thought our comedy would do well in a historical context. When Hulu approached us about developing something with them, it seemed a perfect fit. They loved it from the get-go.

What has it been like working with the other members of the cast?

Fantastic. The show is filled with improv super heroes and ringers we have brought in from past projects. Allison Dunbar, Tim Bagley and Bob Clendenin all worked on 10 Items or Less (Bob also worked on JailBait). Nick Brown and Alexia Dox both appeared in a pilot we made in NYC last year and David Hoffman was in a pilot we made. Tash Aames appeared on a pilot we made for NBC. We are so lucky to have this level of talent on the show. Everyone is improvising all day long so your sides hurt from laughing by the end of the day.

Did you have an affection for the Wild West as a kid growing up? Why did you decide to set the series there?

Absolutely. I grew up in Kansas and my brother and I watched tons of westerns. I never expected to be working on one though! Nancy and I both love action and we thought the time passage would help our style of comedy so I guess it was meant to happen.

Do you think there will be a second season of Quick Draw?

We hope so. All indications are good but the official word will not come out until early November.

What do you enjoy most about working with Nancy Hower?

Ha! Everything. She is a god damned genius and I am speaking the truth when I say I would have absolutely no career without her. She co-writes everything with me, directs every episode and edits every scene. She is a brilliant renaissance woman who constantly blows my mind with her creativity and ingenuity. We love working together – so glad we found each other.

Do you have a dream project you’d most like to see into being?

I gotta say Quick Draw is pretty damn close to comedy nirvana for me. As a comedian I never thought I’d get to shoot people and ride horses and get paid! Hilarious.

Are there any little known things about you that your viewers might be surprised to learn?

I think the thing that surprises people the most is that all of the dialogue in the show is entirely improvised. Also there is a ton of historically correct stuff along with the comedy. For example, Cole Younger, the lead bad guy in the show, was a real outlaw from the 1800’s. Same with Pearl Starr (Hoyle’s step-daughter). There is a point where the whores discuss the value of a steam powered vibrator which really existed.

What projects are you working on at the moment?

We are waiting patiently for Hulu to pick up season two and have three projects in development. We’re set to pitch them along with our agents CAA.

Anything you’d like to say in closing?

Thank you for having me!

Autumn’s Awakening

Precious Realm: Home

I Dream

Illumination

Water

Exodus

Broken

Angels

Brittany Smith works at Amaranth Dreams ( http://www.amaranthdreams.com/ ) using various mediums such as photomanipulation digital painting, and graphic design to create some truly fantastic imagery.

The Meaning of Life and Love in Casablanca

Rick told Ilsa

In the great scheme of things

Little people don’t matter

When the world blows up.

Little Ilsa leaves with Lazlo,

Leaves her heart in Casablanca,

Leaves as Mrs. Lazlo,

A patriot’s appendage.

No one on the movie set

Knew how it should end.

Can anything trump romance?

Transcend passion?

And be believed?

The plane soars,

A metaphor that answers

All questions with

An engine force of yes,

When the world blows up.

Greater love for men

Means giving up life for another.

Greater life for women

Means giving up love for another.

Each gender,

Fragile, tender.

Why must their lives blow up

All over the world?

photo by Pepper Jones

Jenean McBrearty is a graduate of San Diego State University, and former community college instructor who taught Political Science and Sociology. She received the EKU English Department’s Award for Graduate Non-fiction (2011), and has been published in Main Street Rag Anthology—Altered States, Wherever It Pleases, Danse Macabre, bioStories, Cobalt Review, Dew of the Kudzu, Nazar Look, and Black Lantern, among a slew of others. Her novel, The Ninth Circle, was published by Barbarian Books. Her novel, Raphael Redcloak, was serialized by Jukepop.

New Book From John Gilmore, “On the Run With Bonnie and Clyde,” Separates Historical Fact From Pop Culture Myth

Release coincides with big-budget event TV miniseries “Bonnie and Clyde” airing simultaneously on A&E, Lifetime and History Channel

LOS ANGELES, Oct. XX, 2013 – Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow’s crime spree and grisly deaths have become the stuff of legend. And like all legends, much of the reality of the events has been glossed over with the passage of time. Author John Gilmore’s mission, to tell the real story of Bonnie and Clyde, has unseated the popular misconceptions that have held the public’s imagination. Gilmore places the reader squarely inside a succession of stolen cars on a dusty, two-year, devil-take-the-high-road spree of robberies, shoot-outs and murder—all the way to its infamous end in a torrent of bullets and blood. Gilmore delivers a captivating and factual tale of betrayal, demonization and bloodthirsty revenge. He exposes the demise of Bonnie and Clyde as an outright assassination—no due process, just a secretly mandated murder of Barrow and anyone unlucky enough to be with him.

Gilmore dispels the notion that Bonnie was an equal partner in crime. Instead, she was there to support the man she loved, and paid the ultimate price for that devotion. As verified by FBI and the State of Texas, Bonnie’s only crime was being an accessory to transporting a stolen car across state lines.

John Gilmore’s lifelong fascination with the Bonnie & Clyde case was spurred as a teenager when he had the unusual opportunity to see a coroner’s naked photo of Bonnie Parker. Gilmore’s father, an LAPD officer, was partnered with then-policeman Gene Roddenberry (later to become the renowned creator of “Star Trek”), who showed the younger Gilmore the seldom-seen and gruesome portrait. This disturbing recollection has now culminated in the publication of “On the Run with Bonnie and Clyde.”

“This book is a masterpiece of care, lyricism, joy and sadness in the midst of grief. Gilmore made me want to meet these people, to experience their personas, the auras that people put out. I was swept away . . . I couldn’t put it down,” enthuses Lois Banner, author and professor of History and Gender studies at the University of Southern California, about “On the Run with Bonnie and Clyde.”

In December, the small screen will be host to the newest interpretation of Bonnie and Clyde’s Depression-era saga. In an unprecedented three-network simulcast, A&E, Lifetime and the History Channel will air the event miniseries “Bonnie and Clyde” on December 8 and 9. Pop culture enthusiasts and historians alike will be interested in contrasting Gilmore’s narrative with that of the miniseries.

Clyde’s first girlfriend, Eleanor Williams

Bonnie (left) with Clyde’s sister, Marie Barrow

Bonnie’s body arrives in Bienville Parish makeshift morgue

Bonnie & Clyde in death

Last Flame — Last Love; Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow on the run

Black Bayou, Louisiana, south of Shreveport.

About the Author

 With more than a dozen titles to his credit, John Gilmore (http://www.johngilmore.com) is the most successful author currently working with Amok Books (http://www.amokbooks.com). Previous titles include “Inside Marilyn Monroe,” “Laid Bare,” “Hollywood Boulevard” and “Severed: The True Story of the Black Dahlia.” Firmly rooted in the noir tradition, Gilmore’s themes include the dark current that flows beneath the modern fascination with celebrity. Author, playwright and journalist Gary Indiana says, “John Gilmore is one of America’s natural-born gifts to literature. His books aren’t just inspiring and wicked by-products of genius: they’re miracles.”

 Book trailer:

http://www.bonnieandclydeontherun.com

Contact:

Amok Books

info@amokbooks.com

John Gilmore, main speaker for 2013 Death Hag convention at the Pasadena
Mausoleum. Photo: Brian Donley

Please stay tuned for the pending interview with John Gilmore on the subject of Bonnie Parker.

Helen Rizzo & Marilyn Monroe

Dale Corvino recently wrote the personal essay Marilyn Monroe, Baby Sitter which highlights his grandmother Helen Rizzo’s relationship with Marilyn and Joe DiMaggio for Salon.com. Dale operated a photo studio in DUMBO and worked for some of New York City’s largest real estate interests. For more on the article you’ll enjoy: http://www.salon.com/2013/09/26/marilyn_monroe_baby_sitter/

What was it like growing up in Brooklyn when you did?

I was born in Brooklyn only because my mom was very attached to her doctor, who had delivered her, was her pediatrician and obstetrician. They’d moved out to Long Island before I was born. I grew up in a postwar suburb, equally split between white collar and blue collar, Jews and Italians, living in tract developments built on reclaimed marshland. I felt alienated and out of place there from jump-start. It developed amidst the social upheavals and racial unrest of the late Sixties — a “White flight” enclave. I’ve come to see that this unrecognized dynamic, of self-segregating denial, was part of what alienated me.

What are some of your fondest memories of growing up in an Italian family? What would you say is the most important thing you learned from your family through the years?

Food. My grandmother ruled the kitchen, and taught me how to cook, but more importantly, she taught me to honor and respect the bounties of nature. The house I grew up in was on a creek. There was a mussel bed on one end, and a spit of beach on the other, where I’d rake clams. We caught crabs off the dock, too. My grandfather kept a kitchen garden in the yard. My grandmother prepared whole meals out of what we caught in the creek and what we grew in the garden.

Are there any little known things about you that you’d not mind sharing with our readers?

I’ve been writing and publishing under a pseudonym for a decade. Stay tuned for the reveal.

What do you love most about New York?

I challenge those who profess their love of New York to love her with their feet. Love her completely, too — not just the southern half of Manhattan Island. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to Weeksville. Hike up Broadway to Dyckman Street. Check out P.S. 1, then have dinner in Astoria.

What inspired you to write the Marilyn article for Salon? Are you surprised at the response it has gotten so far?

I wanted to share my family’s experience with Marilyn Monroe with the wider world, and add some nuance to her biography. I’m surprised at how overwhelmingly positive the response has been. Marilyn is an icon, and her fans are very protective of her. When I first floated this story, I had skeptics claim the photo is a fraud. I’ve had fact checkers calling me out for false claims. I did my research though, stuck to what I knew, and sought to verify my family’s recollections against the public record.

Do you think the day at the Amusement park you speak of in the piece offered Marilyn a much needed moment free from fame?

Yes, my grandmother gave me the impression that Marilyn’s dream of a life with Joe was a reaction to her growing fame. She wanted to raise children.

Did your grandmother Helen speak of Marilyn often? Did she ever mention what she was like as a person opposed to the star she became?

Sometimes at Sunday family dinners. When she told it to a crowd, it was just an entertaining story, one of many. We had a lot of storytellers in the family. When I’d ask her about it and it was just the two of us, her tone was different. There was true affection, a bright spark in her eyes, and grief for her lost friend. She couldn’t even talk about Marilyn’s death. She’d just choke up. She blamed Peter Lawford, to some extent.

Helen Rizzo

Did your mother ever mention what it was she liked about Marilyn so much as a child?

My mother was six at the time, and doesn’t remember too much about the event. She remembers that she definitely liked Marilyn, and was fascinated with her hair. She remembers the scary experience of being mobbed by the crowds and rushed out of the park.

As an author what do you love most about the act of writing?

I need the solitude and the quieting catharsis of writing. As I find an audience, I love the interactivity. Writing being read results in silent, almost telepathic communication between reader and writer. Readers are in a solemn state, picking up the writer’s inaudible pitch.

What led you to write the remembrance of society decorator Stuart Green? What did you admire most about the man and his work?

I spent my twenties as his assistant, his draftsman, his companion, and his romantic obsession. I didn’t know his full story until after his death; he was brought up on keeping secrets. He created interiors for high profile New Yorkers — Ralph and Ricky Lauren, Anne Cox Chambers, Saul and Gayfryd Steinberg. He was unwittingly embroiled in the murder of John Lennon. His story is one that illuminates the cultural dynamics of American society. He had an impeccable eye for color, and a love of the sublime in nature.

What it is like to run a photo studio at DUMBO?

I had a loft for photo shoots and events in an industrial building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, with views of the bridge, New York Harbor, Lady Liberty — and the World Trade Center. From those windows, I stared at the smoke trails from the WTC for that tracked over Brooklyn for days after the attack. Production companies stopped shooting in NYC after 9/11, so we turned to events, especially weddings. Hundreds of New Yorkers held their receptions in the space. It was healing, and incidentally saved my business. I’m still in touch with some of those couples.

Why do you think the imagery found in photography is often such a powerfully emotional experience for so many people? What do you personally love most about photographs?

Photography has been embraced by our culture so intimately. It’s enmeshed in tradition, ritual, and family history. A photo like the one at the center of this piece diagrams a moment in time, and colors it with light and dark. All these decades later, the photo invites me to imagine the scene in that photo booth — the emotions, the charge, the smells. However my imaginings may fail, they are rooted in a document of time.

Do you have a dream project you’d most like to accomplish?

 I’m on the second draft of a memoir. It’s back-burnered right now, since I’m facing deadlines and assignments for shorter pieces. It’s all one body of work, but the memoir is a big dream.

Anything you’d like to say before you go?

In tribute to Ginsberg’s holy rant, I hereby vow to not let my work become “the cowardly robot ravings of a depraved mentality.”

The Anthropology of Memory

Death swallows all. The existentialists, particularly the French, understand. Still, there are the small rebellions. There is memory. Digging for the forgotten. Holding fragments in hand, lifting them into light.

So after Paris, I buy a used book cheap to remember the French existentialist Henri Michaux, who in turn remembers an Ecuadorian poet named Gangotena who was possessed of genius and ill luck—who died young, along with his poems, most of them unpublished, burnt up in a plane crash.

 No internet search will find them. No Library of Congress hold them. Even then, the great library at Alexandria burned, and some future viral plague may yet take every word now saved in the world’s great memory banks with it into oblivion. Of course, there’s always our own Sun’s eventual solar demise, against which all human arrogance, and every poem, will fail. Unless that beautiful arrogance find us, somehow, a home on another world, a younger world, where Henri and I may yet reside side by side in gold or titanium memory chips, or even subtler clouds of data. But the Ecuadorian poet’s poems are, despite all arrogance, despite love, forever lost. Except his name, Gangotena.

That he was a genius. That he had bad luck. That someone remembers.

Dane Cervine’s new book is entitled How Therapists Dance, from Plain View Press (2013), which also published his previous book The Jeweled Net of Indra. His poems have been chosen by Adrienne Rich, Tony Hoagland, The Atlanta Review and Caesura for acknowledgement and have appeared in a wide variety of journals including The SUN Magazine, The Hudson Review, Catamaran, Red Wheelbarrow, anthologies, newspapers, video & animation. Visit his website at: www.DaneCervine.typepad.com Dane is a local therapist, and serves as Chief of Children’s Mental Health for Santa Cruz County in California.

Lamia

Richard Hescox offers up truly spectacular renderings of vintage and modern Science Fiction and Fantasy art. Richard has worked as a cover artist, background designer for animated films, advertising illustrator, conceptual designer, and art director. He has provided imagery for some of the most iconic characters of our time such as E.T., Halloween, The Dark Crystal, The Never-Ending Story, The Time Bandits, and Swamp Thing among many others. His paintings have graced the walls of the Society of Illustrators in New York, the Delaware Art Museum and the Canton Museum of Art. Fans of his work can look forward to his rich illustrations in the limited editions of George R. R. Martin’s Clash of Kings sometime in 2014.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? What were you like as a child? Did you develop a love of art early on?

I did. Of course my older brother wouldn’t let me draw in his coloring books because he said I scribbled and wouldn’t stay inside the lines.

I always enjoyed the art related classes in school. Fairly early I began to notice that (at least in my opinion) my drawing and imagery was better that the rest of the students. This was confirmed on rainy days when instead of outdoor recess we had to stay inside and draw. I would almost always draw dinosaurs, (my mania at that time) and often other kids would ask me to do a dinosaur for them because they could see that mine were better drawn. Getting recognition was very intoxicating to a shy boy.

Do you happen to remember the first things you used to draw most as a kid?

As I said, Dinosaurs. I wanted to be a paleontologist for many years but art finally won out. The earliest piece of my artwork I still have is a brick into which I carved a Woolly Rhinoceros in the style of cave art. My mother kept it for many years and it finally came back to me.

Kioga of the Unknown Land

How did you first come to work in Science Fiction and Fantasy genres? What was it about them that appealed to you most?

These were the books I grew up reading. The pure and unfettered imagination made them fascinating and I remember developing clear visual images in my mind for each scene. I imagined those images and would think “If I ever became an illustrator for this book, that would be the image I would paint”.

When I realized that I could pursue my education as an artist and went to The Art Center College of Design, I settled down and did the type of illustrations that were being taught and I assumed I would illustrate the usual type of images after graduation. I had always loved and collected the science fiction and fantasy pictures by the great artists in that genre. One day an art student friend (who later became an animator at Disney) asked why I didn’t try to go in that direction myself? It suddenly occurred to me that it was a real option. When I started building my portfolio pieces I naturally tended in that direction and then began to apply to those publishers with Science fiction lines of books.

Do you enjoy creating images that offer society some much needed escapism and stimulation of the senses?

Magic and fantasy were much more real and connected to people in earlier times. Important life lessons were taught to the young through Fairy tales and even earlier by myths and legends. These lessons were introduced into the subconscious of the listener more deeply and effectively that way. In the modern age with scientific advancement and skepticism people seem to be missing this rich cultural education.

Science fiction and fantasy literature along with the associated artwork help keep this avenue to enlightenment open. To see its effectiveness just look at fans of Tolkien or even Trekkies.

In my more recent “Fine Art” paintings I especially try to touch this deep need in people for wonder and ethereal beauty.  I try to picture a world where the wide sweep of fantasy is expected to exist and to be marveled at. I avoid the more grandiose themes and concentrate on subtle scenes of mythical entities doing their, to us, mysterious activities.

Dragon Lord

Why do you think art has always been such a powerful force?

I like to think of art (all branches: literature, poetry, song, drama, music, sculpture, painting, etc…) as Hyper communication. Talking is basic communication. But make those words a poem and the concept embeds itself far more effectively in the listener. Graphic arts do the same. A talented artist can communicate a concept more subtly, and at the same time more powerfully to the viewer. The mark of good art is the amount and quality of communication that it effects (a test that too much modern art fails at).

What does it feel like to earn a living doing what you love?

It is a double edged sword. Yes, you wouldn’t want to do anything else, but at the same time you are so invested in your creations that when they don’t meet with the client’s or the public’s approval the hurt and disappointment is profound. It can even happen when you don’t meet your own expectations with a piece that just didn’t work out like you envisioned.

Jason Cosmo

How did it feel when you first got paid for your work?

Just like when the other kids asked me for a drawing. Recognition that I had a talent that others could see.

What advice would you offer the artists of tomorrow?

Learn to draw accurately and well. Don’t shun the artists of the past because they really knew some things that are unfortunately ignored in much of today’s art teaching.

Guardian of the Horizon

You have worked some with the characters for E.T., Halloween, Swamp Thing, The Never-Ending Story, and The Dark Crystal. At the time did you know they would become as iconic as they have? How does it feel to have worked on characters that are so beloved?

An unfortunate side effect of working on books or films is that you have to be so analytical as you read them or watch unfinished film segments that you can’t really appreciate the work as a whole. I am sometimes so intent on looking for the best image idea and recording useful visual details that I can’t see the flow of the story

Because of this I had no idea which projects would be hits with the public.

Do you ever miss having time to create projects that you personally want to create while having to work on commercial pieces?

The solution is to try to make each assignment look the way you would want it to, but the powers that be usually won’t let you. They are paying for it after all.

I have found time to do some of the paintings I really want to do and love. These are my “Fine Art” paintings. I enjoy doing them so much that I often use any spare time I have working on them.

Ancient Memories

What does it feel like to see your work on exhibit? Do you ever get nervous about that sort of thing?

Again, a double edged sword.  I feel proud, but then I hang around to hear any comments directed at the work. Most artists have some insecurity because their efforts are right out in the open (in a show or on a publication) and they know they are always being judged.

Who are some of you favorite living artists?

As I mentally go through the usual list of artists I answer that question with, I realized that all of them have just died in the last 5 or 6 years.

The Dreaming Sea

Do you have any one subject you like to cover more than others?

Beautiful and mysterious mythological women. That’s what most of my fine art paintings are of.

Do you have a dream project that you would most like to complete before your time is up?

Not really. I try to paint the images I most want to paint each time I start. I have been fortunate in being happily surprised with many of my completed pieces. At least the personal ones.

The Offering

What are you feelings on death and such?

I try not to dwell on that subject except to figure how to put it off for as long as possible.

What was it like to be asked to illustrate George R. R. Martin’s upcoming Clash of Kings?

It was very flattering. George has the right to personally select artists for the Subterranean Press editions. For him to seek me out to ask was an honor and I have tried to justify his choice by doing the best illustrations I could. He had to approve every image himself so I feel I did a good job of matching his mental images. I spent more than a year on the project with over 70 images created.

Mirage

Are there any little known things about you that your fans might be surprised to learn?

Aside from my birth on the planet Krypton, I really can’t think of anything mysterious about me.

What projects are you most excited to bring the world next?

I feel the most pleasure when I find that a painting I have done, and which I feel a huge aesthetic charge from, has also touched others in unexpected ways. The communication I strive for has to be felt by viewers of my paintings on a deeper than literal level. Therefore I am most excited about creating the next painting that achieves that.

The Token

Throne of Gold

Joshua Reynolds, “The Puck”

The New Play

Have you heard what they say?

How Shakespeares new play will start today.

I am quite excited about his last, his great,

the witches, the madness, the crush at the gate.

The mind of the man I am sure’s quite replete

of madmen and demons you find on the street.

What a collection of fools and villains he has in his head,

the greater number for the good of man are surely dead.

History shall call him the maker of monsters and whores

but an afternoon at the globe is better than chores

of which I’ve grown bored, so give me a play

Shakespeare and you shall have my penny. A slave for the day.

Matthew Wilson, 30, is a UK resident who has been writing since small. Recently these stories have appeared in Horror Zine, Star*Line and Sorcerers Signal. He is currently editing his first novel.

“Old Woman Dozing” by Nicolaes Maes

Old Ladies

No one knows the truth

about little old ladies –

the wrinkled squints

of blue and brown

behind wire rims

as they peer over

their fans of cards and cry “Gin”.

No one knows what they

are really thinking

as they sip sherry and spin

a fury of purple thread

between their fingers,

making magic for their grandchildren.

Do they speak of the dapper men

in suits

who brought them asters

and took them out

for lemonade?

Do they speak to each other

of old lovers,

nights of romance

when the stars went missing

and left them barely breathing

in the backs of cars?

Or do they huddle in tea rooms

and theatres

showing black and white

photos, and old sounds

colliding with their chairs?

Do they pretend that

yesterday has lost

its sting and that

tomorrow will come unannounced

too early to be even noticed

and too late

for their hands

to carry?

Pam Riley is a native New Yorker, who still misses the Big Apple. She likes to spend her free time going to the theatre, museums and traveling. She has been writing for years and enjoys working in both poetry and prose. The little quirks and imperfections of life are her inspiration.