my careless contagion

I tried and I failed to walk away. There is something stitched into us stronger than anything I know, and it keeps pulling me back to her. Even though she is silent, and even though I have not a clue what thoughts pass through her mind, she is the vista at the end of the hike. She's the moon when I wonder if the sun will ever return. She's the coolness of the night when I've been burned by the sun. She's ice on a wound, calmness in a storm, a shadow to shield Me from the heat.  She's my only and my everything.    In my life, I've met many wonderful women, but she is the one I want. She is a lonely star in the sky when I gaze into the heavens. Other men see millions and billions of them, but she's the only one for me. I offer her neither riches nor status. I offer her a broken man who has had his heart broken too many times, but they say a broken heart loves bigger than one that has never seen pain. It knows what is at stake, and it loves anyway. M...

Some people seem effortless, the way they get through life, but life is hard for a lot of people. I know a way to make it easier.  I once worked with a girl (let's call her Shelby) who would talk disparagingly of another girl we worked with (who we'll call Shayna). Shayna was a little slow. She went to an alternative school. I got the feeling there was some sort of abuse or at least neglect (which is the same as abuse, really) at home. She loved her boyfriend. She smoked pot sometimes. This was a girl who should definitely not smoke pot, as she didn't have enough brain cells to go around as it was. She told awful, not-funny stories and would laugh like they were funny. Shelby said Shayna was a "herp derp" or just "herp." Sometimes just "derp," "derpy," or some derivative of the same nonsense. Yeah, she wasn't very nice to Shayna.  Shayna loved Shelby. No, not that kind of love. But, she certainly followed her around a bit ...