honea byrne

  He pulled over at the state line rest stop, wanting to hide. Wanting to hide. Wanting to take a break from life for a while. All he could do was cry. “Well son, you ain’t drunk are you?” He watched his tears fall onto the seal of Solomon coin. “Damnit Damnit Damnit.” “That’s a lot of damns, son.” He laughed. Then he lit a cigarette. Took a long pull. “I’ve dedicated my whole life to her.” “Bullshit. You ain’t seen her in twenty years. You know what to do I’ve heard you say it in meetings. You know. Like that Neil Young song. ‘I am but a dreamer, and you are just a dream. You could have been anyone to me.’” Why didn’t you try to stop?” “I did. But you just had to find out for yourself. What’s the song say?” “’I am but a dreamer, and you are just a dream. You could have been anyone to me.’” “That’s right son. “Now get your ass to a meeting.”               He kept crying and crying. Had been driving for about four ho...

  Pretending I’m talking to you again. Professing my love, “It’s been so long. When you left me, I blamed myself. I should have said or done something different. Should have done something better. With that distance of time-ICAN LOVE YOU NOW. I may not be capable of love now. Yet I am more capable now to try. ‘That’s the difference in that Serenity Prayer.’ I remember when you left I’d look for a clue of you everywhere I went.” She gave me something shaped like a coin. Said it was one of The Seals of Solomon. I released the power in that coin to find a couple. To influence them to truly love one another. I wanted to use the power for myself. But …” Sigh. I let you go a long time ago,”-a vainless lie I tell myself. Will this be in The Hundred Love Letters I’ll Never Send   my love? I remember that first date. You were supposed to meet me at the graveyard. Seemed like an odd place. I went through a pack of Kamel Kools waiting on you. Pathetic me. I was eighteen years o...

  It didn’t take him long to see that sign to a city that he had been to years ago. He took the turn and noticed how it seemed to have the looks of Mississippi towns in one town It had the forest with dirt roads. It had the buildings congested all together with clean black asphalt streets. Had the road where one could see horses on one side and a river on the other side. He crossed the state line with an ashtray full of cigarette butts. He kept pressing the repeat button for the same song, “Come Sail Away With Me” because he figured it could put him in a confident mental state. Then he pulled into a Trucker’s Road Stop. Took about ten minutes and four dollars in quarters and fifteen minutes to vacuum and clean the inside and outside of his car. Kept pushing the aerosol can of fragrance until it was out. Then he put a nicotine pouch on the upper gum above his teeth inside his mouth. Hated the taste. Made him a little nauseous.         ...

 “Dude, look at the way you live Like in a hovel,” his friend Carlton told him about a year ago. At that time, he was living in a two-bedroom apartment. “…that’s more like a compartment. You really think you gonna attract any kind of female?” “What about you, living in that tin can?” Tin can was what he called Carlton’s trailer home. Carlton always seemed to have the right answer, “I don’t really care dude. You’re the one always talking about being alone.” Carlton said. Then took a sip of his beer. He had cleaned up a little bit. That meant that he just moved the biggest things into a spare room so that no one could see the mess. Carlton always knew about the coolest movies to watch. There was just one picture on his wall. It was of James Dean with one of his quotes in all big letters “Dream like you’ll live forever; live as though you’ll die today.” They were sitting on the couch that should have been thrown away years ago. “Check this out,” Carlton said as they watched “Pulp Fi...

  I work in one of the biggest and the tallest buildings in town. It’s quite a sight to see looking out the windows on the top floor. Even more so on the flat roof top. You can see the entire city below. Imagine that. I look forward to bringing you here. We could have a picnic on the roof top. I’ve got a big house too.               He dared not tell the truth, that he had just bought the house about four days prior. Moved in new furniture Setting everything in place. Like the state of the art refrigerator with two silver doors that were bigger than that closet in the apartment that they lived in Wiggins.He had an expensive China dishes in a glass cabinet in the kitchen. It was in a special place, just so that when she came to the kitchen that would be the first thing she would see. Maybe she would remember, and know that he was different, than that time they were in the thrift store. Her mother bought the second ha...

 Inside Your Shadow (100 Love Letters I'll Never Send) Pretending I’m talking to you again. Professing my love, “It’s been so long. When you left me, I blamed myself. I should have said or done something different. Should have done something better. With that distance of time-ICAN LOVE YOU NOW. I may not be capable of love now. Yet I am more capable now to try. ‘That’s the difference in that Serenity Prayer.’ I remember when you left I’d look for a clue of you everywhere I went.” She gave me something shaped like a coin. Said it was one of The Seals of Solomon. I released the power in that coin to find a couple. To influence them to truly love one another. I wanted to use the power for myself. But …” Sigh. I let you go a long time ago,”-a vainless lie I tell myself. Will this be in The Hundred Love Letters I’ll Never Send   my love? I remember that first date. You were supposed to meet me at the graveyard. Seemed like an odd place. I went through a pack of Kamel Kools waiting ...