Tag Archives: drama

The Fallen Sniper Tears Blitz

 

The Fallen Sniper cover

A Sniper Romance Novel

Love is Forever, Book 2

Romance, Women’s Fiction, Drama

 

Date Published: October 2021

Raven is the secret love child from Temptation and Surrender, Book One in the Love is forever Series.

 

Much to the chagrin of his parents (Geneva an emergency room doctor and Y an NHL hockey star) he joins the Canadian army and becomes a superior sniper. He endures two harrowing tours of duty in Iraq.

Cheng fills this epic saga with enduring characters and lyrical writing.

Raven, “as fast as a flitting firefly, as silent as fallen snow” answers a call to reconnaissance duty in Mali.

His mother, who aches for her lover and has a horrendous fear for their love child’s safety, laments: “When I watch the moonshine on the water, a nostalgic longing comes over me… a strong yearning that moves me to tears.”

Can an ocean of tears separate the star-crossed lovers, forever?

The Full Love is Forever Series

The Full Love is Forever Series banner

 

Temptation and Surrender: A Secret Love Child Romance

 

Love is Forever, Book 1

The Fallen Sniper Tears: A Sniper Romance Novel

Love is Forever, Book 2

A Mystical Embrace: A Mystical Romance Novel

Love is Forever, Book Three

Coming November 19, 2021

The Madam’s Friend: A Novel for Women about Flawed, Textured, Vulnerable Soulmates

Love is Forever, Book Four

Coming December 17, 2021

Amazon

The Fallen Sniper tablet

 

Excerpt

 

“A command came, for us to retreat.

“Leapfrogging, we started to get the hell out of there. Fire started coming at us from the river and from the houses we had already cleared. The enemy had got between us and the second wave of soldiers that were securing the cleared area. Insurgents were popping up from inside houses and behind walls everywhere, shooting wildly and fiercely. They must have crossed the river because heavy fire was coming from that direction. I was second, and in the chaos, I lost the person in front of me and the person behind, several times. When we got to the copter, Dubbie wasn’t there. He was number four. I went back. In an opening where firing had been heavy, the wind was swirling, looking for an escape tunnel. It caused a circle of dust around a statue in the middle of the opening. The statue came in and out of view, depending on the cloud of dust. I looked, hard. The statue was Dubbie. He was standing straight up, motionless—a sitting duck, in his jargon. I worked my way until I was about fifty feet from him. I remember hearing ‘… as fast as a flitting firefly, as silent as falling snow.’ I dashed, knocked him down, and grabbed and dragged him to a shelter—a bullet-riddled shed. Troy had followed me. Dubbie was in an unresponsive stupor. His eyes stared somewhere in the distance. He was catatonic, but Troy could shoulder him. I covered, and, somehow, we got to the copter. We loaded and took off. We crammed Dubbie in between Troy and me. I put my arms around him to warm him; to melt the ice. When I got my breath, over the noise, I started yelling at him: ‘Good shot, Ryan. Very good shot.’ I yelled it over and over. Then another voice joined mine, and another, and then another. Soon, even though exhaustion and injuries overtook them, all the men started chanting: ‘Good shot, Ryan. Very good shot.’ ‘Good shot, Ryan. Very good shot.’

“A lifetime passed.

I felt him crumble. He slumped over me, moulding against me like a two-hundred-pound sack of prairie potatoes. I felt his hot tears running down my neck.

“The wind came out of me in a huge sigh of relief.”

About the Author

Marlene F. Cheng,

I ran barefoot on the Canadian prairies in the dust that settled after the 2nd World War. That makes me an octogenarian, an oldie.

Thrust from the infinity of wheat fields into the warp of the Rockies, Selkirk and Purcell mountains, the light that defined a frightful, but interesting, high school life challenged me.

Our neighbours were all Italian—migrants to Canadian mining towns. With his Welsh-born farmers’ busyness, my father found strange their art of dolce far niente—that is, the sweetness of doing nothing. They practised it, “Come in. Come in. Sit down. Taste my homemade vino.”

Our family adapted.

And the flames of railway trestles burning and women parading nude colored life. Doukhobors (a sect that had fled persecution in Russia) settled in the Kootenays. They protested having to send their children to public schools.

Wearing a babushka and twirling spaghetti, not only did I survive those years, but I thrived.

Vancouver, the “big city,” where I discovered traffic lights and city buses, claimed me for medical lab training, and I worked the night shift in the blood bank to put myself through university.

I’ve worked in cancer research, taught at tech schools, become a registered massage therapist, taken up energy schooling in NY., married and raised two kids, and, at 73, published my first book A Many Layered Skirt, a biography about a young Chinese girl trying to keep one frightening step ahead of the soldiers, during the Japanese occupation.

My husband, of 56 years, was Chinese. Our mixed marriage was intriguing, and happiness was ours. Interests in people, cultures and places took us around the world. Many of those adventures find their way into my writing. He passed away, throwing my life into chaos. Now, I’ve picked up the pen, again, and have written four books in the Love is Forever Series; a Historical Romance-The Inspector’s Daughter and The Maid; and a literary, autofiction-Shifting to Freedom.

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Burning Desire Virtual Book Tour

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Burning Desire cover

 

The Psychopath and the Girl in Black Prada Shoes, Part I

 

Fiction, Drama

 

Publisher: ‎Xlibris

Mary, is an established woman. Her lifespan is a petrifying mess. This is about dating a truly creepy sociopath, one who swindled himself through life. A self-absorbed, lying person using people.
He presents himself with a public persona of normalcy. She could not see what lay behind the dark shade of Drake Lucifer Bates. He was inappropriately flirting with her; he was a doctor and she was his patient. During a treatment session, he goes too far. Does he get hard when he treats patients? It was too late for her to escape. 

 Unintended she becomes captured in his mean spider web. Drake won her compassion with his enormous intellect and glimmering charm. Something vastly magical happened around him. She begins a passionate love affair with him. Their life seemed blissful on the outside. Behind his malicious plan, it was chilling. 

 Trusting him with her fragile life, she don’t see he is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Believing him was fatal. Swindle wealthy patients, was his primary target. His manipulative behavior and scams, ends disastrous for Mary. She is a character in his horror movie. He sinks into his mania of deceives and lies. He is a predator! She don’t know anything about psychopaths. How does she figure out what she can expect from such people? Her life was never the same, but she learned from his evilness.

Burning Desire tablet

 

 

Other books in the Burning Desire Series:

 

 


Burning Desire Fades cover

Burning Desire Fades

The Psychopath and the Girl in Black Prada Shoes – Part 2

Publisher: ‎Xlibris

Part 2 presents the continuation of the maliciously agenda of Doctor Bates and will leave you in a trance of shock with its vigorous narrative. A moment ago, it seemed, it was yesterday full of happiness. Tomorrow it is a matter of survival for Mary as her life is on the brink of insanity to her Knight in Shining Armor. Loving him was all she ever had.

As she meets Drake again she becomes a slave in the madness of love. Before Mary notice the dangerous life, she gets deeply trapped in Drake’s dodgy mesh. It’s too late for her to escape. Fraud, lies, dominance, torment and the complexity of an abusive relationship evolve, and will unexpectedly be a new part of Mary’s life. Drake’s sinister betrayal sneaks slowly in as he lures Mary like a ravenous wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Mary will experience love, hatred and deception; however, will she continue to be Drake’s victim in his mystiques and hefty deceptions he gets during the nights? On the outside, it seems Drake is loving and has a high IQ, above normal. On the inside, he is a devious psychopath. The story will drastically unfold to a complexity of a love drama, crime, fraud and Drake’s delusions of grandeur.

At a secluded area outside Hong Kong, the mafia attempt to kill Drake. We will follow the two sweethearts in how they try to escape from the difficulties with the Asian Mafia. With lightning speed, three creepy guys and the mafia boss run into the Hotel to search for Drake.

Not only once, but several times the two lovebirds are on the run in the shadowy darkness of the night, because Drake steal and frauds his business associates.

Amazon

EXCERPT

I N T R O D U C T I O N

The Shady Lizard and the Woman 

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. 

—Friedrich Nietzsche

It’s more than difficult to get this all down on paper, because I want it to be authentic. I wish to rationally sense life as Mary experienced it with her ‘lounge room lizard’. All the names of the characters, the establishments, and the places have been changed. The story is fictional, but it contains ideas based on real events. 

There is merely one problem! How to tell it in ten sentences? It can’t be told in a few words. Sorry, friends! However, ten sentences might be easy to read. So, let’s jump to it. A wise man once wrote, ‘Screw it. 

Let’s do it.’1 So I did it! In my new process of life, I can add one more quote by the same man: ‘Do not be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them and start again.’ Thank you for the push. It gave me a new beginning. 

Living near the beach and walking it day and night, is my dream. 

Falling peacefully asleep with the windows open to the gentle sound of the waves crashing on the beach. Letting the blue moonlight shine through the window and watching the glittering stars in the clear night sky, while relaxing in my bed. My decision to finish the story began when I moved into my new apartment, in the first row of homes facing the impressive sea of the English Channel. It provides a striking view from the vast balcony and is barely fifty metres from the dark blue sea and the golden sand, presenting its many small colourful typical British beach huts. Each hut has its own precise shade ranging from burnished orange to icy blue, to depict a ‘sunrise to sunset’ scheme. 

The first night is wonderful peaceful and as I wake up to a warm August summer morning on the south coast of the United Kingdom. 

The Sun is shining through my window as it awakens me at ten o’clock in the morning, while I’m still resting in my silky white sheets, warmly tucked around my naked body, and stretching my limbs as a lazy cat, because I have no desire to get up. After rubbing my eyes, I sit upon my bed to let the blood flow through all my veins, and I look around in the room in confusion. Oh, my goodness! Boxes in every corner. The balcony door is open, and I sense a pleasant fresh and cool sea breeze sneaks into the room, while I’m listening to the sound of the crashing waves reaching my inner ear with a pleasing calmness, and I think, Why not? 

Leave the boxes and start writing a new book or finish the other ones I’m working on. I know my life is rather unreal, because I was heartbroken for a long time, and have not had the time or psyche to finish them. Being loved one day and completely upset the next turned my life drastically upside down. The man I love often tells me, ‘Trust me. I love only you. We are meant to be’ or ‘We will be together for the rest of our lives’. I’m devastated because it’s not as he promised. It’s all a lie! The many red flags slipped past my attention about him being a dangerous person. It’s difficult to imagine and comprehend if I’m going to have a life without him, because he is the best thing that I believe has happened to me. Too late, I figured out the meaning of the phrase 

‘lounge room lizard’, but I believed him and trusted him with my life. 

That could be the biggest mistake I ever made in my life, pondering if he behaves like this to every woman he meets on his path. What gruesome things will I eventually be able to reveal? 

Why is it so important to use the expression ‘lounge room lizard’? 

This expression is usually a reference to lounge musicians, but most often in a negative sense. Such a person has the character of a medieval, ordinary man, who looks charmingly good, and resembles a dehydrated, oppressed lizard, which romantically is involved with a wealthy woman. 

He is typically shown as a well-dressed man and frequents surroundings where the rich and famous gather. He is the type of man who will seduce a wealthy woman with his flattery and deceptive charm. Oh, golly gosh! Do you believe it? He has so much charisma and is extremely convincing and pretends to be a first-class trustworthy charming person. I have never met any person so full of good ideas as his. It’s amazing how the chap can captivate people in front of an assembly, by being so enchanting with his skills and high energy. 

Trust me! 

Those were the main words during our time together. Later, various problems began to arise, with his many calculating plans, when his professional approach or his projects usually started to awaken a great deal of speculation—though often, it was too late to see through the disguise. So, did I do all my research too late? Was I excruciatingly conned, because I loved him blindly? A Russian proverb says, ‘Love is evil. You can fall in love with a goat.’ In other words, love is so blind, and the pretty headless chick becomes blinded. 

The phrase ‘lizard’ presumably relates to the cold and insinuating quality of the reptile. It has sharp claws like an eagle, which is unscrupulous when snatching the next victim. It’s usually a distressed woman, whom he wants to lure into marriage, and maybe Mary was such a sorrowful pretty little doll. He eagerly tries at the early stage to seek some benefit from her, because he never married the previous one. Will he succeed? The woman usually has valuable possessions and money that the lizard man can profit from, and the more naive, unhappy, and helpless she is, the better for him. Then he strikes with his nasty sharp claws into her vulnerability and misuses her to the last drop, without any empathy or remorse. He chillingly torments her until she is severely wounded, like a helpless animal lying in the gutter, abandoned and helpless in its misery! Why does such a person so? Will she discover if he is a maliciously cunning narcissistic artist, an evil psychopath? A bloodsucking leech who sucks the last blood out of others. Has he done so through his entire life? Some say he is a person who completely lack of self-discipline and respect for obligations, rules, and social norms. Others say his speech patterns are repeated lies, with mood swings that are almost impossible to see through. Though, Mary trust this stunning man, even she sometimes sees that he has the flawless ability to bend the facts, and often he says it always someone else’s fault. That is his best play, so no matter what, that’s how it’s done. 

It’s never his fault! 

About the Author

M. L. Stark

M. L. Stark has been married for over 20 years and has adult children and grandchildren. She based certain elements of the story on real-life events. When Stark was middle-aged, she underwent a divorce and met a new man who mentally abused her. These experiences and her survival have empowered her to write stories about surviving cruelty and abuse.

“I am telling the story not of what I thought I was meant to be born into, but as the survivor I have become after abuse. I am also hoping to connect with people and deter them from facing a toxic relationship in their lives by sharing my own real-life events.” Stark says.

M. L. Stark dares to discuss what it is like to be in an abusive relationship, and shows the power in embracing the experience, prevailing and ultimately recovering from the abuse, escaping the psychopath and helping others tap into their empathy and prevail over similar hazards.

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Burning Desire Blitz

 

Burning Desire cover

 

The Psychopath and the Girl in Black Prada Shoes, Part I

 

Fiction, Drama

 

Publisher: ‎Xlibris

Mary, is an established woman. Her lifespan is a petrifying mess. This is about dating a truly creepy sociopath, one who swindled himself through life. A self-absorbed, lying person using people.
He presents himself with a public persona of normalcy. She could not see what lay behind the dark shade of Drake Lucifer Bates. He was inappropriately flirting with her; he was a doctor and she was his patient. During a treatment session, he goes too far. Does he get hard when he treats patients? It was too late for her to escape. 

 Unintended she becomes captured in his mean spider web. Drake won her compassion with his enormous intellect and glimmering charm. Something vastly magical happened around him. She begins a passionate love affair with him. Their life seemed blissful on the outside. Behind his malicious plan, it was chilling. 

 Trusting him with her fragile life, she don’t see he is like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Believing him was fatal. Swindle wealthy patients, was his primary target. His manipulative behavior and scams, ends disastrous for Mary. She is a character in his horror movie. He sinks into his mania of deceives and lies. He is a predator! She don’t know anything about psychopaths. How does she figure out what she can expect from such people? Her life was never the same, but she learned from his evilness.

 

Burning Desire Series banner

 

Other books in the Burning Desire Series:

 

 

 

Burning Desire Fades

The Psychopath and the Girl in Black Prada Shoes – Part 2

Publisher: ‎Xlibris

Part 2 presents the continuation of the maliciously agenda of Doctor Bates and will leave you in a trance of shock with its vigorous narrative. A moment ago, it seemed, it was yesterday full of happiness. Tomorrow it is a matter of survival for Mary as her life is on the brink of insanity to her Knight in Shining Armor. Loving him was all she ever had.

As she meets Drake again she becomes a slave in the madness of love. Before Mary notice the dangerous life, she gets deeply trapped in Drake’s dodgy mesh. It’s too late for her to escape. Fraud, lies, dominance, torment and the complexity of an abusive relationship evolve, and will unexpectedly be a new part of Mary’s life. Drake’s sinister betrayal sneaks slowly in as he lures Mary like a ravenous wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Mary will experience love, hatred and deception; however, will she continue to be Drake’s victim in his mystiques and hefty deceptions he gets during the nights? On the outside, it seems Drake is loving and has a high IQ, above normal. On the inside, he is a devious psychopath. The story will drastically unfold to a complexity of a love drama, crime, fraud and Drake’s delusions of grandeur.

At a secluded area outside Hong Kong, the mafia attempt to kill Drake. We will follow the two sweethearts in how they try to escape from the difficulties with the Asian Mafia. With lightning speed, three creepy guys and the mafia boss run into the Hotel to search for Drake.

Not only once, but several times the two lovebirds are on the run in the shadowy darkness of the night, because Drake steal and frauds his business associates.

Amazon

About the Author

M. L. Stark

M. L. Stark has been married for over 20 years and has adult children and grandchildren. She based certain elements of the story on real-life events. When Stark was middle-aged, she underwent a divorce and met a new man who mentally abused her. These experiences and her survival have empowered her to write stories about surviving cruelty and abuse.

“I am telling the story not of what I thought I was meant to be born into, but as the survivor I have become after abuse. I am also hoping to connect with people and deter them from facing a toxic relationship in their lives by sharing my own real-life events.” Stark says.

M. L. Stark dares to discuss what it is like to be in an abusive relationship, and shows the power in embracing the experience, prevailing and ultimately recovering from the abuse, escaping the psychopath and helping others tap into their empathy and prevail over similar hazards.

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Miranda Rewritten Blitz

 

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Miranda Rewritten cover

 

Durango Street Theatre Series, Book 7

 

Contemporary Romance, Drama

 

Date Published: June 2021

Publisher: ‎Boroughs Publishing Group

THE BEST KEPT SECRETS

Durango’s production manager, Miranda Jenks is straightforward and honest. She deals with life head-on no matter what it brings, and she’s not afraid to speak her mind. But… she’s been harboring a soul-destroying secret for years, and when Ross Ellis returns to town to try to clean up his mess, she can’t tell him the truth.

Ross has made more mistakes than he can count, and all of them are worse than horrible. The only reason he’s bothered to come back to his farm is for his teenage daughter, and he hopes like hell she’ll let him make amends.

Miranda is the last person he’d thought would forgive him, and as they spend more time together he finds they fill each other’s gaps. Until he uncovers the lies she’s been keeping for years.

Two lonely people who understand each other better than most must find a way to heal the breach or they’ll never get to the happy they’re reaching for.

Other Books in the Durango Street Theatre Series:

Durango Street Theatre Series

 

Vivi’s Leading Man – Book One

 

A year after their divorce, Vivi and Miguel are forced to work together to save the Durango Street Theatre, and learn they might really love each other after all.

Maggie’s Starring Role – Book Two

Maggie has to secure grant funding to keep the Durango Street Theatre alive, but Kirby is standing in her way, and he’s too damn sexy to ignore.

Wade’s Dangerous Debut – Book Three

Star of community theater, Wade Baxter’s been living a lie for years, and to hold on to the man he loves, Wade must shed his demons and step into the light.

Jessica’s Hero – Book Four

After her bomb squad husband got blown up, Jessica vowed no more cops, especially since she’d grown up with a cop father, and knew all too well she was not meant to be waiting up all night and worrying, never mind being widowed again, and then SWAT officer Brian Howard danced his way into her life, and she had to make a choice: be happy or be safe.

Letti’s Second Act – Book Five

He’s too young, brash, and one hell of a distraction, but Letti can’t get Kevin Summerset out of her mind, and she might have to give into his pull after all.

Cameron Unscripted – Book Six

Wanting what he can’t have Cam has to figure out a way to keep Josh.

Amazon

 Miranda Rewritten tablet


About The Author

The author of over forty romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. The mother of two sons, she and her husband split their time between central Texas, eastern Tennessee, and overseas visiting their kids and grandchildren. For relaxation Emily plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele for two different performing groups, and even sings a little. She says, “I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman—if she’ll just let it.”

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The White Field Release Blitz

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The White Field cover

Crime Fiction, Urban Fiction, Noir, Drama

Release Date: September 18, 2020

Publisher: TouchPoint Press

 

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The White Field is a fast-paced journey of a man, Tom, fresh out of prison
and trying desperately to rebuild his life. But he is caught by mysterious,
unseen forces beyond his knowledge or control. After his release from
prison, he is dropped back into the world in the wastelands of the city. In
the menial work afforded the underclass, he begins his new life among
characters at the edges of society, dwellers of the netherworld such as
Raphael, a former cop from Mexicali singing Spanish arias in the mists of
the industrial night among drug addicts and crooked cops; Tony, a stoner
scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge of history based solely on the
intricate study of rock and roll; and Larry, the bloated, abusive manager
trapped as much as his workers in a world of tedium and repetition and
machines. Think, The Three Stooges on acid. Unable to reconnect with
what’s left of his family, Tom embarks on a criminal path more
harrowing than the one that led him to prison in the first place. Lured in
by the nefarious, Thane, he slips into a plan that will leave him with no
way back. And with no place left in this world to go but prison, he makes
one last run for freedom. Will he escape?

 

Praise for The White Field:

 

“The White Field is a rabid yet tender odyssey into the oscillating
abyss of an ex- convict degenerating into redemption. Cole writes with
haunting splendor, illuminating the dreams of the doomed.”
—Matthew Dexter, author of The Ritalin Orgy

 

“Author Douglas Cole’s breakneck prose places us squarely in
the hectic mind of a man influenced from all sides, seeking a life free from
fear. The result is a stunning narrative that is simultaneously frightening
and familiar.” —Kerri Farrell Foley, Managing Editor Crack The
Spine.

The White Field tablet

 

 

 Excerpt

 

I walked into the sun. It seared the road and the rooftops, intense,
blinding. I went up Eighty-Eighth Street through the homes and the old elms
with their heavy summer growth and darkness along their limbs, light
strobing through the shadows. I knew someone might recognize me. They might
even call the police. But I couldn’t resist. I was free, now. Nobody
could touch me.

Only those who cared, and by now there were none, would have known my
release date. My wife may have known. At one time, I imagined her writing it
on a wall calendar, marking off each day leading up to it with a big, black
X. But I knew I’d fallen far from her thoughts.

I couldn’t be sure of my children, though. They were so young when I
went in they could have forgotten all about me. My wife had remarried. Very
likely they called her new husband daddy. Very likely, they thought he was.
Events had erased me. After all, I’d made no contact. And while I had
no idea what my wife might have told them, unless she’d changed in
ways I couldn’t foresee, I knew she’d tell them the truth if
they asked and say nothing if they didn’t. At worst, they believed I
was dead.

And that life seemed like something unreal. There were no traces of it
around here. But my sense of time was way off. From counting, literally,
minutes as they passed, I went into a vast timeless trancezone where whole
years vanished. In the midst of this, I reemerged from time to time to peer
into my little cell of life with seconds hanging like drops of water on a
window ledge and refusing to fall. But now, walking this street, I was the
last person anyone around here was expecting to see.

So, as I went up Eighty-Eighth to the old house, I had this strange feeling
that I was invisible. In the dusk light, I saw the windows of the houses
blazing. Commuters on their way home shot by and curved around the meridians
in the intersections, their faces steel traps that snapped and flashed
mirror eyes and grim lips and frenzy, frenzy for home, motion so fast they
blurred into tracer ribbons. And the sun only cloaked me that much more.
Even my shadow was a rail.

And I heard it, that high tension ping, like my own past ringing from the
driveway and those days when I was a kid, too, playing into evening as our
faces disappeared in the darkness with only the square of the backboard
above and the black sphere of the ball and the heat and breath of the other
players around me. Then I saw them, three boys playing basketball in the
driveway. One was a tall gangly kid with long black hair and ripped jeans
and a T-shirt with the word ENEMY printed on it. Another kid stood beside
him, but the light made it hard to see his features. Then, the ball landed
on the rim, bounced up, arced over to the other side of the rim, hung there
suspended in the net for a moment and then dropped through. The third boy
stood back from his shot with his hands on his hips, breathing hard, turning
his head slowly as I saw, I swear, my own face there in front of me.

With a brow of concentration like a hawk’s predatory gaze, he looked
at me as our eyes locked for an eternal moment that I thought carried some
recognition, but the moment changed before I could read it.

Then, I was passing on, and my son returned to his game.

About the Author

Douglas Cole has published six collections of poetry, a novella and has a
novel, The White Field, coming out in September with Touchpoint Press. His
work has appeared in several anthologies as well as The Chicago Quarterly
Review, The Galway Review, Bitter Oleander, Louisiana Literature and
Slipstream. He has been nominated twice for a Pushcart and Best of the Net
and received the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize in Poetry. He lives and teaches
in Seattle. His website is https://douglastcole.com/.

 

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