The Game of Reason

 I stood fifteen stories high wondering how to win the game.

The pieces were positioned outside of my favor and my odds of winning were slim.

The politician had my power and my tax money, the corner store and grocery store had my nourishments and the justice department had my will.

The doctor had my medicine and the entertainers had my thoughts.

The reverend had my God and the scientists had my genetic blueprint.

The gym had me running in circles and the teacher indoctrinated me.

The bank had my money and the government had my land.

The university’s had my trades and skills so what move could I make?

I had to figure out who was on my team, how could I win this game?

I slide my piece across the ledge fifteen stories high. 

Thinking I’d just made a good move I hear my baby daughter crying.

I have no clue who my opponents are and I can hear my wife searching for me. I’m so confused.

“Craig, Craig.”

Instead of folding, I get off of the ledge and go back into the small apartment to work on being a better father. I decide to play by the rules and read a book to increase my odds of at least breaking even. I wonder if it’s me against the world.

I almost lost the game of reason.

The Story of Father Earl & his Kids

 First it was one, then two, and then four. Earl was a sex-a-holic, dope slinging no good woman banger. After ten years of freedom he had a total of 200 babies out of wedlock. The guy was a savage, his child-support bills were well over three million dollars. Through it all he had his ups and downs, some of his kids loved him and some of them hated him. Earl kept doing Earl until he met his son Little Jimmy. Now at age 8, Earl abandoned Jimmy and before he was born, he dropped Jimmy’s mother off at the hospital and left her there to give birth alone. Little Jimmy’s mother never forgave Earl for this and it almost seemed like Earl’s karma would never catch up to him but it did. It was Father’s Day, 1998, and Jimmy had just graduated. Earl took every dime of his drug money and moved down south with his best concubine to try and run away from his past, but all of Earl’s kids were struggling while big daddy Earl somehow kept smoothing his way out of his duties as a father, but there was something about Little Jimmy.

One night when Earl was asleep he had a dream that Little Jimmy came to visit him on Father’s Day. The dream was so real that he woke up sweating. This was how it started. Even Jimmy’s mother knew there was something special about him. Some how he would appear in places out of nowhere but on the Father’s Day of 1998 the thought of Little Jimmy haunted Earl. He was everywhere. When Earl woke up, he was standing over his bed looking down at him. Earl thought he was losing his mind. 

“Did you see him?” Earl said to his concubine.

“See what Earl? What are you talking about?” she replied.

Earl then got up to go take a drive in his car but as soon as he opened the door, Little Jimmy was right there.

“Leave me alone, or I’ll kill you,” Earl screamed.

Shortly after seeing Little Jimmy, Earl turned around and saw his baby girl Shea grabbing his leg.

“Daddy will you play with me?” she said while more of Earl’s kids started to appear.

“Oh God! Help me please!” Earl screamed.

Noticing that he had his motorcycle key in his back pocket he quickly ran in his garage, jumped on his bike, and sped out of the driveway, but the voices were getting louder. 

“Daddy come and play with us? Help us? Feed us daddy.”

 Earl was losing his mind, he lost his handles on his motorcycle and flipped off then landed head first at an abortion clinic. Laying on the ground bloody and a bit broken up he saw his daughter Cee Cee staring out of the front window of the abortion clinic.

“Cee Cee, help me? Come help daddy up,” Earl said as Cee Cee got closer.

“You remember me daddy, do you want to play with me now daddy?” Cee Cee said getting closer.

Getting closer to Earl, her voice began to change. Earl couldn’t move, all of his aborted children latched on to his soul as he found himself tied to a burning stake.

“Cee Cee, what are you doing?” Earl said watching his daughter’s playing with fire.

It’s play time daddy. They then lit the fire and watched their deadbeat father burn at the stake while they sang songs.

The last thing Earl heard while his body burned was the singing and laughing of his children. 

“We love you Daddy,” Little Jimmy said as Earl woke up in a cold sweat.

Realizing that it was all a dream, something changed in Earl. His heart grew three fist larger, he now felt obligated to be a better father and a better man. The next morning he called up everyone of his kids and split every dime he had on them to undo his wrongs. He went to his son Timmy’s graduation and he bought little Jimmy a car. He stopped selling drugs and paid every dollar of back child support and opened up risk free investment accounts for all of his kids. Earl was a changed man, he even went to the women who he forced to have abortions and said sorry. For the rest of his life he lived and served at a rescue mission. He died broke, but left a letter for all of his children to read:

Dear Kids,

      I spent the majority of my youth watching people suffer while I lived it up, but I died hoping for a shot at redemption. I cannot undo my wrongs from the past, but I died trying to make the future better for you all. Learn from me and let your dreams guide you to a better world. I’m sorry.

Love, 

your father Earl.

The End.

Father John

 “What a dirty old man,” Jane said looking at her husband.

As much as she would talk about him she loved her husband John. They had a unique relationship; John was into music and Jane was into exotic photography. She would get a kick out of watching John come home from work, turn on his record player and listen to Whitney Bison. She was John’s favorite singer. He would always smell like alcohol and would sit there and cry like a little baby listening to her. Outside of this, this was all they knew at the peak of their careers. John’s children would get a kick out of watching him and their mother argue but it was all genuine love. His three daughters and four sons didn’t have much but they had each other. It turns out that Jane’s passion for the exotic photography business caught up with her in a bad business deal that got her killed. Every business has its down side but John knew he had to stay strong for his children. His wife had morals but her passion for the arts somehow got her tangled in a web with the wrong people and John dealt with it for years because of his love for his family. With no wife at home, he dreaded the thought of starting over so his daughters ended up doing most of the cooking and cleaning. The men from his generation were used to women having to take care of the home and just like their mother they would watch their father come home from work and fall back in his chair with tears in his eyes listening to Whitney Bison. Back in John’s peak years life was simple and people stayed in their own lane. He hated that his wife had an odd profession but it didn’t defeat her character, she was a great woman. John would always joke around with her about how she was going to rewrite the garden story in Genesis and dreaded the fact that her passion for the purest form of art got her killed.

When John’s wife died his alcoholism got worse. He drank so much that his kids became concerned.

“Daddy, do you love us?” Lana, his older daughter asked as he sat in his dark cold room watching cowboy movies.

John looked at his daughter with his famous crazy face, “Lana, that’s a dumb ass question.”

She laughed, grabbed his basket and left the room.

John’s children knew that there was no changing their father but living in a time where bread winners kept things in motion they knew they had to keep him alive and happy or they would be separated. One night John came home so drunk that his son Billy got upset.

“Dad, you gon kill us and ‘yo self at the same time. You got to slow down,” Billy said.

John being John hugged his son, smiled as he always did when he got drunk and fell down in his chair after turning on his Whitney Bison Record.

“You remind me of ‘yo mother. You can’t fix the world Billy, it’s got to fix its self,” John said.

Billy got upset.

“Dad, I can’t keep livin’ like this. If something happen to you what’s gone happen to us?” 

John pointed to his most famous album cover on his momentous wall, “Billy, I’ll say it again, you can’t fix the world, it’s got to fix its self. Jenny Montgomery put the sun on every one of her album covers. Her highest selling song was titled: ‘As long as the sun rises we keep rising’ now take ‘yo ass to bed and let me handle my woes. Iz got a lot on my mind son, too much for ‘yo young self to handle, but I’m ‘gon get you to the finish line. I promise you that.” This was one of the first times Billy, being the youngest, had ever really heard his dad speak his peace, but it meant a lot to Billy, it was real. This was at a time when the world for him at least, almost seemed a bit too much to handle, but for some reason when father John said something, everything was alright. 

The good thing was that John kept his promise. He watched everyone of his kids grow up off of his own strength. For years John stayed in that same spot after every hard day at work and never had a bit of education outside of music. His common sense and will to work  with every musician was enough. At age 89 on Father’s Day, he, his children, and all of his grandchildren took a family photo and while at the counter paying for the photos John’s youngest daughter Tina saw a naked picture of him and their mother fall out of his wallet.

“Daddy, what the hell is this?” Tina asked, quickly picking up the photo and making sure no one was paying attention to it.

John smiled while gently taking the photo from her and placing it back into his wallet, “That’s me and ‘yo momma when we started our own baby factory that made you and everyone in our photo.”

Tina started laughing, “You a dirty old man.”

John saw her mother in her when she fed him that line, he then paid the camera man and started humming Jenny Montgomery’s song “As long as the sun rise we keep rising” while he and his family continued celebrating Father’s Day.

The End.

The Solo Bride

It was a cold winter night and I could tell by the room temperature that the furnace was having a hard time kicking on.

“Damn, this is just what I needed,” I said to myself, digging deeper into my thoughts for a solution. 

To be honest, it almost felt like everything was falling apart, and my wedding was in the morning. It’s a good thing she decided to stay at her mother’s house so we could do it the right way.

“Ahh, thank god, I can feel the heat revving up. I wonder if this could be a sign of me getting cold feet, I mean why get married at age fifty to someone I’ve only been dating for two months?” 

Laying in bed alone, these were the inner voices in my head... I had less than nine hours to make a decision. I tossed and turned while also comprehending the fact that if I showed up tomorrow at the wedding I would have to share my bed with someone for the rest of my life. 

I could hear my cousin Damion’s voice, “Marriage is all good until five years later...”

It’s now two o’clock in the morning and I’m still awoke thinking about skipping town. 

I get up to go to the bathroom to calm down...

“Why is she in such a rush to marry you? She must have something up her sleeve,” I hear my brother James saying over and over again as I face the mirror.

“Maybe I should call the wedding off until the summertime. Who gets married in the winter anyway? God help me! Why am I so nervous?”

Standing in the bathroom shaking, I feel my heart tighten up. I fall to the ground and flatline right before my wedding day.

The next day everyone goes on as usual until they realize that me and the best man are absent. 

James knocked on my door for hours then finally gave up. He assumed that I’d somehow been at the church already and while he stood there freezing cold outside of my house he noticed that he didn’t have his cell phone on him. Panicking he took a look at the time on his watch then rushed over to the church thinking that I was already there. Busting into a crowded church noticing that I wasn’t there he stopped in his tracks only to witness a solo bride searching for her groom.

My high blood pressure got the best of me. The thought of marriage killed me before we even tied the knot. What a tragic ending.

Til death do us part.

The Solo Bride.

Tulsa & D Day

Let’s take time to remember, unite, and make the world better while also moving on from our trials and tribulations. Even in present day we can learn from the past and move forward towards a better future.

Never Forget Tulsa & D Day

William & Coco

 “You can do it Coco,” William said, watching his best friend play tennis.

Coco loved the game, she even created her very own logo.

Sports kept Coco going and she valued friendship.

She was very into just about every sport and she loved to compete.

“Friendship is important Coco,” William said, opening up the door for his friend.

Once everyone saw William and Coco practice good friendship they soon tried it too.

Friends care, friends share, and always find a reason to build each other up. This is what William and Coco represented. 

Through it all, they remained best buddies. William was always there to cheer his friend Coco on, especially when she played tennis, they became the sparkle in everyone’s eye on what good friendship is all about.

Live, learn, grow, and laugh together, be a good friend.

The End.

Naomi the Magnificent

Her power, her speed and her tender voice set her towers above the rest.

“Naomi, can you please come out and talk to me?” I said, banging on the screen door, hoping to hear her tell me about her magnificence. 

Shunning me, she ran into her room.

“Naomi, come and talk to me please, how did you become so magnificent?” I said, begging to get a response.

Looking at her strong legs in the magazines, I had to hear about her workout sessions, but the more I asked the more she began to cry.

“Go away!” she said, slamming the door in my face.

Watching her peeking out of the window at me, I fell to one knee and asked for her magnificent hand in marriage.

She quickly closed the curtain and said no.

Her aura, her passion and her magnificence, made me become a better man.

She was so great that I had no choice but to submit to her demands. I felt a tear fall down my face, I was just grateful for the time she gave me to be in her presence.

I walked away and patiently waited for the day she returned.

Naomi the Magnificent.