karma

Charles claimed his same seat as yesterday and the day before. For 11 years twice a day, once at 12 and again at 4 He had sat there in the last booth along the front wall eating his sausage and eggs staring at the traffic along Liberty Ave. The staff thought it odd until one day he became as the wallpaper, as the glinting polished granite which lined the floor. It was not until he stood up this day clutched his chest and rolled flat upon the floor they noticed him again and finally lying roundly and without breath.

Jerry a florist of 18 years having lovingly made arrangements with flowers totaling the number of days she would be alive had in effect been creating her own offering, a suitable Mandala. When she was done flowers of each kind flooded her every sense and upon this carriage she was alighted forward.

Sam scrubbed dishes at Giovanni’s Family style Italian eatery and catering service for two summers. In that time he had cleaned more plates than days he had been alive, suffering the sense of being the lowest species alive for the duration. He would gladly improve his situation if only there was something to do about it. Often to avoid being at his rented space in his Grandmothers house Sam would drink at Carrington’s over on Jamaica Ave and speculate about the lives of others. This one time he lifted ten dollars right off the bar paying close attention that everyone’s head was turned at that precise moment. At the risk of a terrible beating Sam had won the privilege of 5 more glasses of beer which he gulped triumphantly between drags of his Rothman’s quality Tobacco. It was during his walks that spring to the small Queens Branch library he would come alive. For there behind the iron gating were roses colored in parchment orange white pale-yellow and red so vivid it made the heart ache. There he would sit wondering if he loved these better than anyone else. He decided he must and that this somehow gave him worth and that his would always be the kind unnoticed, a vast epic borne upon an array of passing clouds set within a sky never to be discovered. This he decided was ok, in fact, perfect.