The rend couldn't be mended amidst the rancorous rhetoric.

We bought not what we needed but desired to add to the pile that merely dissatisfied.

The sunlight streaming into the bedroom between the shade's slats was a gift to her that morning.

Alaine was abundantly blessed but blind to it all.

Her days of experimentation gave way to hardnosed hours spent on honing her craft.

In the span of two years, he got married, had a kid, bought a house, and turned his back on the barstool he'd worn the shape of his ass into.

They set aside their politics for one meal a year and instead focused on the family gossip.

Dirty double-dealing sycophants didn't see the wall, which they were about to hit, built by the biggest liar of them to whom they were all inthrall.

Dalia found no refuge in sleep for her dreams had become nothing more than extensions of her daily anxieties.

His pep talks were becoming darker and more depressing by the day.

They twisted the truth into a pretzel and served it up piping hot for their constituents.

Time wasn't on his side, it turned out.

The unobtainable standard was just a few Photoshop clicks away.

Chris's normal operating system was chaos.

The longer Lee kept his head down and did what he was told, the easier it became to forget that what he was tasked with was just plain wrong, and possibly outright evil.

Tasha believed technology had been invented to test her patience.

It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times.

Sometimes it was all just fun and games.

Death was unbecoming.

He knew it was going to come but the first flurries were always a shock.

The scrape and rustle of rake against dried leaves gave way to the shonk of shovel through snow.

Lost in inner space (a phone, really) while the world around us slowly chokes.

She knew it was just an illusion, but it didn't make it any less real.

The senator realized in the final moments of his life as he lay in bed alone that he'd attained nothing real and his so-called power was nothing but an empty wasp nest.

Debonair til the end he died wearing a tuxedo and two-thousand-dollar shoes on his feet.

I chose the highway.

What had we taught our children?

It was if no time had passed since they'd last seen each other.

The wind-whipped flames devoured all.

The dog had slowed down some over the years but was still a puppy when it came to playtime.