Author: Tripping Raul

  • Day II

    Wearing my tight red shirt and bright red “it-won’t-come-off-on-him” lipstick, waiting for Aunt Joanie to get home so I can maybe take her to lunch before she drops me at my cousin Laura’s and Laura and I go shopping and then to dinner and then who knows, maybe man taunting.…

  • Descent

    There’s a halo around the shadow of the plane right before it plunges through the clouds: the red and gold ring an ethereal contrast to white cotton pillars and the gray silhouette of the jet. The blue sky above gives way to a curtain of mist that opens to Chicago: a quilt of yellow, brown, gold, green,…

  • Walk

    It’s little late in the season to be dodging inchworms on the sidewalk, but I understand. It’s 76 degrees in mid October and I’m striding along the mile-plus stretch on 136th Avenue wondering to myself why anyone would want to be anywhere else, even inchworms. “She shuts up the ashtray, I say…

  • Bus

    She was already seated as I plopped down in the aisle-facing bench on the RTD. I didn’t notice her until the bus started rolling and I whipped out my compress to finish my make up. One can never quite get it just right at home! Regardless, there she was on the…

  • OMG!!!

    True to his (its) word, there was the answer; an amazing epiphany. My boss saw I was hurting. She asked, I told her what freakish, ridiculous behavior I’d succumbed to as of late and she shook her head and sat. What she said literally took my breath away. “Like me, your personality…

  • GDA

    Whoa! Man! That didn’t take long! “What’re you doing?” he’s glaring at me from across the computer, but the corners of his eyes turn downward in concern. “You know, even the most lowly play a role here. Don’t be so quick to assume you’re not playing yours.” “I want to die.”…

  • Black dress

    Drat. My dress is too long. I never notice these things until I catch my reflection in storefront windows walking from the bus. I should have tried it on before tossing it in the washer, the dryer and then sliding it onto my body. I freakin’ look like Stevie Nicks!

  • Visitor

    I do not need assistance nor do I look like I do. I know precisely where I’m going but the male nurse asks anyway. “Can I help you find who you’re looking for?” he offers. He’s handsome, tall and military and he must want me to notice him because otherwise…

  • “I just moved here from Iowa”

    My feet were smacking hard on the pavement as I walked because it was that kind of day and I just needed to walk to escape. But no. There is no escape for me. I rounded the corner from 128th to Lowell as the RTD bus drove up. A man…

  • Archie Smith Boy Wonder

    By Dante (written when he was 10)             A tiny voice asked, “Could he be the one?”           “Huh?” Archie asked as he awoke. But all he saw was the sun staring back at him. It was a Sunday; he had to go to church. As they were sitting…