The Quill & Soul

06/09/2026

Green Light at Dawn

It’s Sunday
driving to work
in the early morning,

Seeing the sunrise in front of me
at the traffic light.

The sky painted orange,
red, and gold,
like it was putting on a show
for the few of us awake
to witness it.

The traffic light turned green,
telling me to keep moving,
I wanted to stay right there,
watching the day begin.

Another shift awaits,
another day of work,
yet somehow the sunrise
makes the road ahead
feel a little lighter.

The world keeps rushing,
chasing clocks and deadlines,
while the sunrise reminds me
some of the best things in life
still show up for free.




Photo Credit: Kristin Hurtig

06/04/2026

Middle of Nowhere

A mailbox sat out in the dust,
Still standing because it just must.
No internet there,
No one seemed to care,
Yet the credit card offers were first.

We drank from the hose as kids then,
And survived without tracking
and trends.
But out in the wild,
Like a long-lost GenX child,
The junk mail still finds us again.

Photo Credit: KKristin Sue Photography

06/03/2026

Without Apology

05/31/2026

Five Minutes and Gone

Out back behind a business,
a forgotten little corner.

A chair, a table,
nothing fancy.

A place where the staff
steal a few quiet minutes
from a busy day.

No meetings,
no customers,
no managers looking over shoulders.

Just a chance to sit,
breathe,
and be left alone.

Five minutes and gone-
before heading back inside
to do it all over again.

Photo Credit: KKristin Sue Photography

05/31/2026

November Echoes

The piano keys-
Black and white,
Like the choices
We make
throughout our lives.

Some notes ring clear,
Some fall flat,
Some become songs
We never forget.

Each key
A memory.
A moment,
A person
Who crossed our path.

When fingers touch the ivory,
Looking so effortless,
The music flows
As if it was always meant to be.

What people don’t see
Are the years of practice,
The missed notes,
The mistakes,
And the lessons learned
Along the way.

The years pass,
Like fingers
Moving across the keyboard,
Playing a melody
We don’t always understand
While we’re living it.

Some songs end too soon,
Some linger
Long after the music stops.

Some people leave,
Yet their song
Still echoes
In our hearts.

And one day,
Looking back,
We realize
All those separate notes
Were never random at all –

They were the Soundtrack
Of our lives.

Photo Credit: KKristin Sue Photography

05/21/2026

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Doing the laundry-
Wash.
Rinse.
Spin-

It feels like life
At times,
Going around and around,
Always washing
The s**t off
That we carry
through our lives.

The spin cycle-
Life has a cycle,
Spinning us
So fast,
Wringing us out
to the point
We don’t think
We don’t have anything
Left to give.

Taking our strength,
Courage,
And patience-
Trying to turn us
Cold
And bitter.

Until one day
We stop spinning-
And the world
Just keeps washing
The next load.

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05/12/2026

Quietly Saying No More

Dating a narcissist—
Felt like one of those old cassette tapes
That sounded perfect at first
Until it started warping
And eating itself alive.

They came in smooth,
Like an ‘80s love song
Playing too loud in your car
At seventeen—
Making you think
This was it.

You thought
You found your person.

Instead,
You found someone
Who only loved
Being adored.

At first,
You were everything—
Their favorite song,
Their late-night call,
Their reason for breathing.

Then somehow,
Without warning,
You became the problem.

Every conversation
Turned into a blame game,
Like some twisted rerun
You never asked to watch again.

They’d tear you down
Real quiet-like,
Not always yelling—
Sometimes worse—
With silence,
Cold looks,
Backhanded comments
Disguised as jokes.

And because we’re GenX,
We stayed longer than we should’ve.

We were raised to
“Tough it out,”
Keep working,
Keep loving,
Keep surviving.

So we kept making excuses
For behavior
That was slowly
Destroying us.

Walking on eggshells
Like cracked linoleum floors
In an old apartment
With ashtrays full
And bills piled on the counter.

You start forgetting
Who you were before them.

That’s the part
Nobody talks about.

Not the fighting—
The disappearing.

Until one day
You look in the mirror
And realize
You’ve been surviving someone
Who was supposed to love you.

So you leave.

Not loudly.
Not dramatically.

Just quietly,
Like turning off a television
After realizing
The show stopped being good
A long time ago.

05/06/2026

Sin City-Still Glowing

We came here
Raised on arcade lights,
Hair metal,
Cheap beer,
MTV,
And the belief
That somehow
Life would stay wild forever.

Vegas
It felt like freedom
Back then-

Loose coins
In slot machines,
Cigarette smoke
Hanging thick in the air,
A jukebox somewhere
Playing 80s rock
While neon buzzed overhead
Like a second sun.

No cell phones,
No social media,
No one filming
Every stupid thing we did-
Just stories
We barely remember
And friends
Who still laughs about them
Thirty years later.

Circus Circus,
Old casinos,
Sticky carpets,
Cheap breakfast at 2 a.m.,
Watching people
Chase luck
Like it owed them something.

Back then
We thought getting older
Was for somebody else.

Now we walk through
The same city-
A little slower,
A little wiser,
Looking at the lights
With older eyes.

Some of the old places
Are gone,
Some friends are too,
But the feeling still hits
For a second-

Like hearing an old song
Come on unexpectedly.

Sin City-
Still glowing,
Still loud,
Still trying to sell us
The dream.

And maybe that’s why
GenX keeps coming back-

Because for one night
Under those neon lights,
We can almost feel
Young again.

Photo Credit: Kristin Sue Photography

05/02/2026

Silent Strength

The battles
within
That we fight
Constantly-
Every day.

No one sees
These battles
Not because
We’re ashamed
But because
No one would understand
So, we tell ourselves.

Many conquer
Those battles
But so many
are defeated by them,

Not because they were weak
But because of their
silent strength-
that they never
knew they possessed.

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05/02/2026

They don’t make them like us anymore

You and I
Have been friends
for so long-
You are more-
You are family.

We may not
Talk every day
But when we do
We pick up
Right where we left off.

As the ol’ saying goes-
They don’t make things
like they used to.

I can say
the same goes
For friends.

They don’t
make them like used to.

So, if you’re lucky enough
As I am-
to have a friend for twenty
or more years,

Hold onto them.
Don’t let go.
Don’t take it-
Or them-
for granted.

Because life is short.
in a blink,
they could be gone.

Send a message to learn more