and on Sunday she wore her summer dress

Scheherazade was so wrong; she had it all backwards. For 1001 nights, she told her king new stories to keep him interested and spare her life. But men don't want to hear stories-- they want to tell them. They want to talk; they want to hold the floor. Males want the world to listen to whatever it is they have to say. That was the single thing she learned from her dismal period of Internet dating--most men really only want to talk to someone who listens. Some want to download while others want your sympathy. Some want admiration but not as many as she had originally imagined. More often than not men just want to tell you what they're thinking or how they see the world. They prefer an appreciative audience but willingly settle for an attentive one. She realized after meeting so many men in a short period of time that the best way to start things going on a date was to give the guys a little verbal push and off they'd go--talking about themselves, their world, their take on things.

- Jonathan Carroll
I like the nights of stars. her summer dress thin and breezy hiked to her waist. Her lips on my neck as she sits close. i tell her about the salty sting of sea water and other stories. I pretend we are on a sail-boat sailing to anywhere. Anywhere but here. anywhere as long as she is with me.
we are really in bed and tomorrow there is work. but I tell her this and this and that. until she closes her eyes. she sleeps now, but I still talk only in whispers. listen. this our happily ever after. As close as it gets. real or pretend. stars and moon and shiny rings.


audrey kawasaki