Bed Alan Lewis, having retired at two in the morning in a state of chemically induced equilibrium (two cups espresso + several glasses of modestly priced sauvignon blanc), sliding contentedly, almost happily into bed with Evelyn, cuddling up to her back spoon fashion, nesting his face in her long, shampoo-fragranced…

Joyce sips from her dry, double cappuccino and whispers “Yes,” before setting the cup back on its saucer. Zahra Café is one of few places in town where she’s found an espresso made the way an espresso is supposed to be made. It is sadly becoming a lost art. …

No one ever suggested that it could happen. No one talked about it. The idea hadn’t even been mentioned until the morning they found a bloodstain the size of a small sand dollar on the bedsheet. They’d awakened to the sound of the street outside being torn up; the rhythmic…

Once fully liberated, she rides her antique, three-speed bike down the small hill from her campsite to the: RESTROOMS — SHOWERS — PAYING CAMPERS ONLY. She dismounts and goes into the well-kept, recreational facilities and takes a hot, 50-cent, seven-minute shower, arching her soapy back against the white tiles, rubbing…

Je ne retiens rien de nouveau. And all that I used to know se cache dans la peur. It is so bad that I even forgot the word for library. Je ne sais pas pourquoi. Is it that I am so much older now? Ou que je n’ai jamais été aussi intelligente…

The one who was there — or “barely there” if you asked them — stood on the bank of the river, not knowing how swift or slow the current was or what may be hidden beneath the surface. …

You are in bed, just waking up, and worries take a seat before you, plant themselves like a tired, old man right in front of you. You remind yourself to lift off, rise above it. And when you do, you feel the release, the powerful sense that you are in…

For a very brief time, A. & E. were like a diphthong, sitting side by side on the bench outside the meditation center meeting secretly at odd times and places 7:13pm in front of the library 2:32pm on the cliff overlooking the Pacific. A. wrote poems for E. and sent…

You’d forgotten how it works: You check in, surrendering your passport and your bags at the front desk, and you go to your room where everything is unfamiliar except your lover standing there, naked, smiling And you undress, stepping out of your clothes, since you’ve already stepped out of everything…