Brian Andreas

One day, I decided to help wherever I could & it was almost like magic, because I was exactly what the world needed everywhere I went.

I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep & there are no words for that.

There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.

In those days, we finally chose to walk like giants and hold the world in arms grown strong with loveAnd there may be many things we forget in the days to come,But this will not be one of them.

There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter & noise.

I sometimes wake in the early morning & listen to the soft breathing of my child & I think to myself, this is one thing I will never regret & I carry that quiet with me all day long.

We sat in the car & the night droppeddown until the only sounds werethe crickets &the dance of our voices& for a momentthe world becamesmall enough toroll back & forth between us.

I have a renewed commitment to elegance, she said, in case you think I'm just spending money for the fun of it.

Wanting him to come back before anyone notices part of the world has not moved since he left.

He loved her for almost everything she was & she decided that was enough to let him stay for a very long time.

A few said they'd be horses. Most said they'd be some sort of cat. My friend said she'd like to come back as a porcupine. I don't like crowds, she said.

Your job is to focus on my personal happiness, she said, & I've got big plans, so break time is over.

I don't really like coffee, she said, but I don't really like it when my head hits my desk when I fall asleep either.

If you're right & I'm not, I'm going to be hell to live with, she said. So, you better think about that next time you want to be right.

That was the day the ancient songs of blood and war spilled from a hole in the skyAnd there was a long moment as we listened and fell silent in our griefand then one by one, we stood talland came togetherand began to sing of life and love and all that is good and trueAnd I will never forget that day when the ancient songs died because there was no one in the world to sing them.

You may not remember the time you let me go first. Or the time you dropped back to tell me it wasn't that far to go. Or the time you waited at the crossroads for me to catch up. You may not remember any of those, but I do and this is what I have to say to you: Today, no matter what it takes, we ride home together.

We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I'd never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.

Everything changed the day she figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life.