Les said, “Mind your own business.”

Just before he hung up the phone.

We didn’t talk much after that.

I miss my old friend.

I am currently in the business of being a single father and raising a daughter who is entering the beginning stages of going through puberty. There is much to mind here.

I am treading lightly with an ear towards listening. I have had wise counsel and numerous warnings and am swimming towards the deep end now…

Prayers are always appreciated 🙏

Dennis Mantin

This has not been easy.

I started over 2 decades ago.

There were things I thought I knew but could never know until I became a father. This was essential for completion along with a pandemic, which afforded me a 5 month block of time, uninterrupted by work.

‘LOOK THEM IN THE EYES is the title.

The concept is a novel about the Intergenerational Transmission of Family Dysfunction and one man’s attempt to break that cycle.

I am sending this off to my editor this week for a final edit and then I will be attempting to find a ‘literary agent.’

This is the cover art.

Woke up in the morning.

The sunshine was turned on.

Somewhere the pain all vanished.

All bad memories they were gone.

Along with some good ones.

That left me kinda sad.

All in all, just one day in.

This Alzheimer’s not so bad.

Took a nap on a Saturday

Left me all messed up.

Left me with the words I say.

Complaining about a half empty cup.

Don’t take long, that time spent.

To turn the Titanic around.

Don’t know where that nap went.

But the apologies they are sound.

In the wind…

Under dark blue skies.

Beneath the full yellow moon.

He wipes his hands of the past in the rain.

There will be no peace here.

No, no redemption.

Just fate.

In the wind..

Until the sleep will come.

And nightmares turn to dreams.

Where the sunrise warms their spirits.

And still no talk of God or grace.

Here in this earthly place.

In the wind…

It was all about Good Friday.

By Monday you were gone.

And if I were going to have my way.

Then here is where that light shone.

There was a kindness in her eyes and smile.

That felt quite insincere.

I didn’t care or give a damn.

My intentions were made clear.

She sure was someone’s sister.

And in the spotlight of that fame.

She seemed to be in a giving mood.

So I took and felt the shame.

There was danger in the darkness.

Not so much at light of day.

There was no silence and those footsteps.

And I watched her walk away.

I have watched it overtake them.

Destroy anything resembling goodness.

Jealousy framed as justice is the juice.

Forgiveness is a road traveled by few.

They stubbornly resist into the Madness.

They rail against their

supporters.

She is 10 now…

There’s so much going here but it probably looks like we are all just standing still.

Her favorite teacher is leaving her school and she cried and told me…

“She’s more than a teacher for me; she is like a mother too. I don’t get to see my mother. My mother is not dead but she might as well be.”

She’s at the beginning of puberty and sex education at school is bringing me lots of questions because “I’m not putting up my hand and embarrassing myself… no way!”

I am in the middle of refinancing and they are trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

We are friends and family and getting by and there is love and respect and this is what I signed up for!

Thank you God!

“I don’t care about Sarah, Nicole!…

You got it Pontiac.

You got a problem, huh? Not my problem. Whatcha gonna do about it. Goof! Sarah doesn’t like you either. Stuff it up your ass bitch. Suck my left testicle and fuck off!…

I just buried my mother.

89…

Never had a good word to say about me anyway.”