Alarm Clock

The alarm clock was still whining as I entered my bedroom, the bed unkempt, dishes stacked on the nightstand.

 I really need to clean, i mutter out-loud. tomorrow  I say to myself.

 I slapped the button on top of the clock, the whining stops. I stt down at the end of the bed and begin to take off my work boots. I'm tired. My back hurts. This shift change is a damn disaster.  My boots are tossed towards the closet as I take my phone out of my pocket.

My body is greatful as i lay backwards and slide underneath my comforter..

Right on time my phone rings and I listen and smile, I chat about my day and ask about theirs and tell  my boys I'll be around to pick them up around eleven and to have their rooms cleaned before they leave for their mother.

The children's mother and I talk. The conversation brief and short but friendly. She was always too good for me, I knew it from the first day we talked.

I hangup and drift to sleep. The alarm clock not set.

the coffee maker is broken

Rebecca sat in the nook looking out onto her backyard looking annoyed, sipping on a cup of tea. James comes into the kitchen, looks at the empty pot of coffee.

"I forgot to set it last night." James said as he begins to fool with it

"The coffee maker is broken. Doesn't heat up, there's some tea on the stove."- Rebecca called back

"Oh man,whats wrong with this thing. I guess I'll pick one up after work, i'll just drink OJ this morning.- James maneuvers to the refrigerator, takes out a pint of orange juice and sits it on the counter. 

Rebecca gets up from the nook, taking the coffee machine off the counter and accidentally dropping it on the floor. 

"Whoah how'd that happen?"  James is startled. 

" Im sorry it slipped." Rebecca says, sipping on her tea

James picks the coffee maker off the floor, and put it in the trash can

I swear this place is haunted sometimes. 

laws to govern a new world. What are they

I had no idea where I was or what I was doing here. The light is hazy, like dusk on the plains, the air smells slightly sweet, in front of me is a crowd of things.. They're monsters staring at me in silence,

I fall to my knees a loud booming voice ringing in my ears

SPEAK

TELL US YOUR RULES


"What Rules!" I cry out. "What do you mean."

A hundred voices in my head i

t seems like scream at me instructions. I don't understand. It hurts. I feel ill. There is a sudden silence and one single low voice starts speaking to me.

"Sir, tell us how you would govern a new world.What would you demand of its people."


I don't understand, the voice repeats itself. I now know these things are reading my thoughts.

I sit on the ground, the ill feeling in my stomach gone, looking out at this crowd, not monsters but aliens. a whole lot of them, many different looking ones.

I try to think

the voice tells me to collect myself

i stand up

i speak

The first rule of my people is to: Love your neighbor

With that my mind is once again rushed with thoughts and voices but know images, images of the most horrid things we've done to each other.Murders, War, so much violence.

silence again

the lone voice cries out to me: Your people aren't ready yet, they do not follow their own laws.

The monsters begin to fade, leaving this place, wherever we are.. Their shapes and movements so foreign to me, frightening.

The lone voice comforts me. We all were once like yours.

Another trying few days

The incident in Paris followed by a failed political coup. This is certainly the craziest year of my lifetime. Everything is just a mess

I promise my next five entries will all be prompts. Didn't mean to use this as a journal but here we are

Not a prompt

I'm not an eloquent speaker or philosopher. I'm just a dude who is tired of this crap..

Police have to do better in this country with their interactions with minorities, these cases in the news this weeks were just ridiculous. I know that the duty of policing is just so inherently dangerous that police live on edge but there has to be something to get them less amped. I don't think there is a true easy one size fits all approach to helping this but rather its probably best to use lots of different strategies. #1 Screening cops has to be improved, i know it takes a certian mentality to be a peace officer but there should be some more standards than just a clean record and physical performance. #2 Need to teach deescalation techniques and adhere to them #3 GO PRO THE COPS,FUND IT #4 Hold cops accountable when shit goes south.



Thoughts out to the victims familes in New Orleans and Minnesota. Just awful


On to Dallas

I was going to write the above yesterday but the absolute shitshow that went on in Dallas last night just ruined me mentally for a day.  What the fuck does murdering 5 cops in one of the most transparent and progressive police departments in America accomplish besides giving redneck racist assholes the gumption to respond? This country is on the forge of a dark period, we're so divided now that I just don't know where we go from here.

My heart aches for the victims families.


We have to get out of this white vs black/police vs minorities mindset. We have to.  There has to be reform in the police,there has to be an end to violent divisive rhetoric from anti-police groups.

Treat each other better.