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Love Is …

Vampyre BytesNo Comments

Love is a place.
A safe space,
Where you can be you, without fear.
Without judgment or reprisal; just to be clear.
Love is online, a community that fosters your growth.
Love is a home that supports and offers a troth.
Love is that one diner
Where you and your tribe couldn’t be finer.

But love is not *every* place.

Love is a person. They ask if you’ve eaten.
That ride-or-die friend that just cannot be beaten.
They tell you to drive carefully and text when you’re home.
They add color to life when it turns monochrome.
They listen; hold space.
They offer care and grace.

But love is not *every* person.

Love is a thing. A reminder of hope.
A hug in order to cope.
Love is hot chocolate with marshmallows on top.
That teddy bear when the tears won’t stop.

But love is not *every* thing.
In fact, love is so rarely the thing by itself,
Love is the feeling you get from that thing on the shelf.

Love is a clusterfuck of emotions.
Love can be happy. Love can be sad.
Love can be angry. Love can be mad.
Love is confusion. Love is irrational.
Love is calm. Love is magical.
Love is joy. Love is pain.
Love can be all of these at the same
time.

Love is unconditional. But love sets boundaries.
Love is love, even if the sound varies.
It is freely given, without limits.
Love is how we survive all of these minutes.

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To All the Could’ve Beens that Will Never Be…

Sean PrunkaNo Comments

We were friends.

We laughed and danced. We sat and talked for hours.
We drank and danced some more.
When you wrapped your tongue around my finger,
It became the signature on a note that said:
“There’s more.”

We were going to give it a go, to see what the future may hold.
But, weather happened. Our first date was a no-go.
Work schedules collided. Our second first date was a no-go.
Then COVID happened. And all of the next umpteen first dates were a no-go.

Then you died.

I love you as a friend.
I wish we had the chance to see what other types of love we could’ve shared.

I miss you.

I still think about the fun we shared as friends and I still wonder what might have been.
I still wonder, “If we’d had that first date, would you still be around?”
I still wonder, “Is it my fault, for not trying harder?”
I still wonder, “How could I have helped you?”

I know the answers, in order, are:
“No, probably not.”
“No, definitely not.”
“There is nothing.”

But I still ask myself.
I still feel the hurt and the questions.
And despite my logic knowing the answers —
My heart still asks and wonders.

But you’re not here to tell me, my friend,
“What could’ve been?”

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The Last Show

Vampyre BytesNo Comments

Who we were going to be was chosen for us by the choices we made.
We poured ourselves into our personas, while we delved deep into their psyches.
Over the run of time, we grew in each others’ light.
We grew, our characters grew, our friendships grew.
Time was kind to us, time was on our side, time stopped.
We laughed, we cried, we fought and nearly died.
As long as we held the stage, time could not move.

Then the clock started ticking again and time had run its course.
We took our bows and struck the set, and each tick of the secondhand brought us closer to the end.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened,” we say, through tear soaked cheeks, knowing full well that crying is all we can do.

Yes, we’ll meet again and run another course.
But that time will be its own.
This experience will never happen again.
Each run is a unique adventure that can never be recaptured.
So I will smile through my tears as I slip away without saying …

“Good Bye.”


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Nature’s Contract

Sean PrunkaNo Comments

The rose grows lovely and lush,
Smelling as sweet as sin.
It will bite you with its thorns.
A corpse flower, putrid and dank,
looking as lovely as a lounging lady.
The balance of beauty.

The Moon is cold, empty, and dark,
Yet glows with Solar radiance.
The Sun is life-giver and cancer-maker.
The levels of life.

Winter: dead outside, but
Snowmen and hot cocoa inside.
Spring: lush and green,
With flowers bursting at the seam.
But the bugs are back.
Swimming at the beach while sweating
and sizzling on the sand all Summer.
Autumn holds the heat at bay,
The trees turn into a bright array,
But the days are short and hide their beauty away.

Who is to choose what Life has to offer?
The light isn’t so different from the dark,
both have their ups and their downs,
they are all a part of Nature’s Contrast,
Our contract with the natural world.
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Malleable Memories

Sean PrunkaNo Comments

Harken back to yesteryear:
The joys of childhood,
The pangs of adolescence.

Revel and frolic in your visions:
Superheroes dashing about the yard,
Climbing trees that were skyscrapers.

Relive and recoil at your nightmares:
A tender note; rejected.
Peals of laughter as schoolwork is sent scattered.

As you travel back in time,
The good gets better.
The bad gets worse.

We recraft our memories each time we recall them.
Did you never scrape your knees on those trees?
Did no one ever love you back?

Memories are malleable.
We can change them.
Though they depict the past,
They are not written in stone.

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National Coming Out Day.

Sean PrunkaNo Comments

So today is National Coming Out Day. A day to celebrate coming out. Whether you are Bi, Gay, Lesbian, Queer, Transgender, or even just as a Straight Ally.

I’ve been a “straight ally” for years now. But it’s time to be open and honest about who I am and what labels most closely fit my own preferences.

For many of my friends, I doubt this will be at all surprising. For those of you who are shocked, surprised, or amazed; well, you really shouldn’t have been.

First a few facts that I think everyone knows:

  • I am married to woman.
  • We have 6 wonderful children together.
  • We are monogamous.
  • I have a man-crush on John Barrowman.
  • I’m not gay.
  • I live my day to day life as a cisgender male.

Now the facts that you probably didn’t know:

  • I’m bisexual.
  • I’m not confused.
  • I’m not greedy.
  • It’s not a phase.
  • I don’t really fit into any specific gender label, the closest though would be “gender fluid”.

Well, that’s that then, isn’t it? I’m “OUT”. I don’t have to hide any more.

Well, mostly. As far as the gender binary thing goes, I’ll still live day-to-day presenting as a cisgender male, because 99% of the time, that’s who and what I am. Those other times when I feel more feminine, or gender neutral, or simply “non-conforming” … well, I won’t be afraid to be who I am at the moment, when those moments allow me to express.

I won’t live in fear of “being found out” because I’m OUT now. I may live some new fears that I never had while I was hiding as a white-privileged, cis-privileged, straight-privileged, male-privileged person … But, I know that I still will have all of those privileges almost all of the time.

So, really, nothing will change in my day-to-day life. I’ll still be married. I’ll still have 6 wonderful kids. At most, I’ll give myself permission to be a little more flamboyant when the mood strikes.

 

EDIT: 2026.10.07

Well, I am now separated and 2 grandbabies have been added to the list.

I’ve slid around on the gender spectrum quite a bit, but Fluid is still the closest common term, though I do also use trans and nonbinary now sometimes. I did coin a new term as well: multiphasic gender adj. 1. having the capacity to contain multiple genders at the same or none at all, influenced by mood, circumstances, whim, or unknown reasons. Example usage: I never know which gender or genders I will be on a given day or even at a given moment, they just kind of phase in and out on their own, so I must be multiphasic gender.

When it comes to sexuality, bi still works, but so does pan or gay or lesbian (sometimes it varies with gender, sometimes it stays more static.) So I just use “queer”. Simple and ambiguous. Like me.

 

 

Here’s the deal: “choose one Cure album, and make a story, using every track on it.”

And here’s my story:

*The kiss* is the key, but there is a *catch*, it could be *torture* … *If only tonight we could sleep*, then we would be rested for the journey. Your role in all of this is by far easier, *why can’t I be you* this time? I know, I know, it is all because of *how beautiful you are*. I’m the ugly one, so I get the crap job, I have to make my way through *the snake pit* and the other perilous tasks. *Hey you*, your task is *just like heaven* in comparison. *All I want* is a refrigerated suit for the next task, after all, you wouldn’t believe just how *hot, hot, hot* it is going through that oven *one more time*. You, you get to sit and just look pretty, *like cockatoos* on display. Licking the *icing sugar* off the silver spoon. The perfect job for *the perfect girl*. *A thousand hours* later, and all I can to is *shiver and shake*, and hope that this *fight* has been worth the prize.