Harlinn Draper
May the shadows of your soul be unveiled by the fire in your eyes.
The sweet leaf burns, its embers glowing like a fragments of the sun fallen to earth. My heart beats a rhythm, like music that courses through me, electric and alive. It chokes me, this fire, but i...
We sin with the thought of saying sorry later, as if words could wash away the act. We love those who won’t love us back, pouring ourselves into empty vessels, knowing it’s foolish but doing it any...
Every day is a fresh shot at what you may have previously missed, a chance to learn something you didn’t know before. Days are finite, like bullets in a clip. Time—your most scarce resource. Spend ...
The divergence from humanity begins. It is quiet, subtle, like a slow bleed. The ties that bind—mortgages, schedules, obligations—tighten with each passing day. Men, once wild and unchained, become...
I often think of setting the world on fire, unleashing my rage, and watching anarchy take its course. These are just thoughts. There is no real desire to become that person again, to burn it all do...
Oh, Momma, I beg you, before I am laid to rest, place a Marlboro between my teeth. Do not worry or weep for me; I will be there, somewhere adrift and free, on a cool Kentucky breeze.
The power of sound is a force capable of healing and transforming lives. We live within the confines of our current reality, a reflection of our vibrational state. When we alter our frequency, we s...
I sit and try to understand the creeping numbness that has taken hold. It's as if a battalion of microscopic spiders are marching through the neuron pathways. They tear at the gray matter, taking m...
I want to be the wonder in your eyes when you think of heroes. I want to be the joy that lifts you up when you're down. I want to be your protector, your shield against all evil. I want to be yo...
You feel it. A heavy presence, it’s been creeping up slow and silent. You hear his roar, a snarl that sends shivers down your back. The black shadow moves gracefully, stalking towards the front wit...
You are the essence I want to baptize myself in, to immerse myself day and night. I will do anything to be closer to you, to feel every part of you. Your mind, your heart.
There you go, making tragedies trivial. Turning storms into a cloud burst. You’ve taken what was whole and left it splintered, scattered—pieces I would’ve cherished, pieces you let fall into the d...
The strands of green and blue fell from the sky, a kaleidoscope of color that burned my eyes. The world felt as if it were breathing, expanding and contracting around me. My mind was a storm of end...
“Where the hell are we?" Trisha leaned forward from the back seat of the '89 Chevrolet Caprice, her voice cutting through the stale smoke filled air.
The waters surge relentlessly through our cities, floods that sweep away all in its path. Forests and neighborhoods are on fire, consumed by flames that reach hungrily towards the sky, while mount...
What happens to the feelings and thoughts meant for those who won't hear us? Do they drift endlessly in the ether, or do they find their way into the hearts of those who need them most? Sometimes, ...
The harnessing of hunger and drive is a brutal affair. It's a fire in your gut, either you have it burning bright or you are cold and dead. When you're clawing your way out of a pit, that fire roar...
A boy whose heart knew only the warmth of his father's embrace. Beyond the little boys control, the world had worked a distance between them, stretching for seven hundred miles of sadness and confu...
I have been shattered and pieced back together. The mending brings a glow to the grayness, but the thrill of the pain makes the heart beat more fiercely. The thrill is what I desire. I will force m...
The branches clawed at the slate-gray sky, swaying in the grip of a warm breeze. Above, the moon hid its pale, watchful eye behind a veil of rapidly moving black clouds, their edges glowing with an...
I fucking love this place! It is always sunny, the warm breeze blowing through the palm trees, crystal-clear waters. Not only is this place a paradise by all definitions, but the collection of peop...
My surname is Driggers, and for a long time, I thought it told a simple story. Fair skin and green eyes, they said I was German, Irish, Dutch, Scottish, Welsh. But digging into the past, I’ve found...
Stranded in the waste of a world gone sour, a boy stood, his fists clenched, his eyes burning with a fire. The big bully, a presence of oppression, tried to keep him down, tried to claim supremacy....
I woke up this morning in Paint Lick, Kentucky, the same place I've called home for as long as I can remember. But today, something felt different. Today, I am poised to alter the trajectory of Wor...
Following the Arab oil embargo of 1973, a series of investment incentives were introduced to address the rising demand for coal. These measures included exemptions for long-term coal production con...
Desperate times call for desperate men, but often they merely pretend. Caught in the idea of being brave and strong, as a man should be, they struggle with the fear that swells deep within—fear of ...
I've spent my years soaked in faith, letting it shape my life. Now, the intricate patterns of my belief begin to unravel before my eyes. The graveyard calls to me. The vines, apathetic to the crumb...
The fire within me burns, radiating heat through my skin. My body is electric. My eyes are crystallized quartz, seeing everything. I am something more, something untamable. This world was not made ...
In the armpit of America, where the plains are stretched out like a sea of gold, the skies are gray as fuck, the people are carved from the raw, unfiltered essence of this land. There's a brutal ho...
The words come not as a melody but as a slow, mournful dirge, the kind that reverberate in the hollows of a heart long since emptied.
Under the dead Ohio sky, the bones of men lay scattered across the gray fields. The fallout came swift and unrelenting, a storm of fire and ruin that left the world in ashes. Explosions shattered t...
Death is always stalking, a quiet certainty whose arrival is unknown. This unknowing gives life a deceptive boundless well from which we draw carelessly, assuming its endlessness. But life is finit...
I’ve been hit by something—some insidious virus or infection—something that’s crept in my brain like a dense fog. It started on a Monday, December 13th. The fog rolled in, slowing normal thought, f...
Taken from me, by the cruel selfishness of a world that marches on, were the only things that ever truly mattered.
The cold black night suffocates the day, a velvet curtain smothering the light. I walk alone, the rhythmic hum of the distant interstate cries from afar. In the absence of light, it is sound that g...
Walking a familiar path, though it's my first time here, I feel a strange familiarity with the place. Is it déjà vu, or a connection to a spiritual past? Perhaps it's both, depending on how you see...
If I could capture moments like lightning bugs, I would have a jar overflowing with the luminous memories of our time together. Each second with you a joy, where sorrow and rage dissolve in the war...
In a storm that brought the melee within him, he moved with the caution of a man who knew the ground beneath his feet could betray him. The mine field was treacherous, each step a gamble, each deci...
The density in the air seemed to change, as if the world around him was charged with the energy of his presence. His signature look; guitar in hand and cigarette hanging effortlessly from his lips,...
Absoluteness is a state without bounds. Like believing in God without question. It is pure and simple.
In my past, a haunting absence followed me —a void etched by my father's elusive presence. From the tender years of childhood, I yearned for his time, his attention, his love—a craving unfulfilled,...
The night carried the scent of wildflowers, an aroma that mingled with the distant hum of crickets. Beyond the undulating hills, a storm brewed, its thunder rolling across the mountains like the ec...
On a November night in 1993, the Weekly World News splashed a sensational headline across its front page: "Half-human, half-alligator discovered in Florida swamp." The image on the postcard captur...
The mirror murmurs, a subtle weep in the red glow of the digital clock sitting on the bathroom counter. Claire’s reflection leering back at her, a ghostly expression in the unforgiving light. She c...
Violence is brutally beautiful. In both victory and defeat, the mind transcends its limitations, expanding in ways that only conflict can provide. Each encounter with violence becomes a lesson, res...
Breaking through the gates, built by the pain inflicted upon you, is difficult at best. The path is hard-worn, carved from the jagged stones of past anguish. Each step is the silent cries of nights...
Bruised fruit is just that—bruised. It is not rotten. The apple, once bright and firm, may bear the marks of rough handling, yet it still holds sweetness within. The foolish soul might see the scar...
Walking along the beach at night is like stepping into another world. We cross into a dark, dystopian dreamland, where the breeze hums with mystery. A crowd gathers, children running and playing, ...
Before the sun crawls over the horizon, a quiet understanding lies between us, unspoken but felt deep in the marrow of our bones. My best friend, a creature of love and loyalty in a world filled wi...
What’s wrong? Why are you so mad? I am fed up with constantly feeling like there is something inherently wrong with me, when in reality it is the lack of empathy and understanding from others that ...
How does one discern the fractures that run deep within? A facade of false reassurance worn, “I’m good”, obscuring the boiling anger beneath the surface. Love is a distant memory, often replaced by...
He perched upon the creaking porch of the weathered farmhouse, cradled by the cool caress of the night air, a familiar companion. The moon, cast a ghostly veil of sapphire over the cold Kentucky hi...
“One thing bout music, when it hits, you feel no pain.” -Dead Prez
Hold yourself to the pinnacle of your potential. In the shadowed stillness of your inner sanctum, where only you dare to tread, be both your sternest critic and your fiercest champion. If you do no...
We take for granted the ones who love us most, blind to their silent sacrifices until we stand by their graves on birthdays. It is ironic, how we expend our energy seeking the approval of those who...
The legend of Atlantis has fascinated historians, archaeologists, and mystics for centuries. Whether it remains a mere fable or holds buried truths of an ancient civilization, the story of Atlantis...
In the quiet spaces between the words, where the world narrows, that's where friendship lives. Seven years, they say, and it might just last a lifetime. But it's not the years that bind us, it's th...
Understanding oneself and unlocking one’s full potential is a multifaceted journey that requires deep introspection and determination. The premise that to become who we want to be, we must first kn...
In the intricacies of human existence, a shared resentment binds one another, often creating an emotional tether, like welded steel. Dependency is often the most efficient way to draw resentment o...
Love and hate, those feelings, often find themselves as bedfellows in the murky depths of our inner lives. These powerful emotions don't merely coexist; they intertwine, and sometimes clash in a tu...
Like a rabid animal skulking in our collective psyche, sadism creeps around, waiting for the perfect moment to bare its teeth. Ah, the sweet agony! The sadist walks on the tightrope of morality, re...
The desert blankness long and wide, an endless horizon of dust, is the canvas upon which painted my existence. The thin line between earth and sky, where faith determines where your eternal existen...
We are inevitably marching towards the scenes of "RoboCop" and "Demolition Man", where the sci-fi is becoming non-fiction. Almost everything is leaving behind its physical form for a faster, better...
The world will be yours, you will conquer your fears and overcome any challenges. In a perfect world these are the things I hope for you.
My hero wore no cape, had no fame, although he did have superhuman strength. He wore steel-toed Redwing boots, they were extra wide. He worked on trains, and cut the necks from his T-shirts to fit ...
The moment the door blew open, the force of the explosion felt like it had sucked the air out of my lungs. My life flashed before my eyes as an chemical induced ball of flames surged through the sm...
The lines I've been carving in my face with hard living and bad choices form a roadmap of wisdom. I didn’t realize that 40 can look like 60 if you don’t treat yourself right. I say I don’t feel as ...
In the heart of a small town that seemed to breathe with a life of its own, existed a place that will swallow you whole if you dare let it. It was a fate claimed by far too many, including my dear ...