I didn't know I was doing it until I had done it. It's like going on a new hike, a bit of a mystery. You leave the trail head with a little trepidation. Can I do this? You've looked at the map. It makes sense. (Always a worry.) You wonder how steep the climbs will... Continue Reading →
Some days, when I sit for my morning scribble, I read instead, go through pages, upon pages, of yesterdays' scribbles, and I highlight interesting phrases, words, sentences. Then I randomly string them together, a puzzling, a mending, a review. And, it's fun to see what happens. Just like watching Riana when she would play with... Continue Reading →
Laya's hands are small, almost childlike, and she is a short woman, easily a head below me, but she seems to tower above me. It's not the first marvel. She escorts me, with a bit of a waddle, to the massage therapy room, and I think, "This is going to be good." Something about her fragrance,... Continue Reading →
Drums that Heal No now, no next. Ma. Who knew that on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Flagstaff Public Library, I would find the word I needed to capture my current state of affairs, and from Taiko drummers at that. Five performers pounding out their hearts, and pounding right into mine. This group's performance... Continue Reading →
Gray Choices I come from the dry cleaners chemical steam staining my shallow breath like my brother’s ashes that cannot stay on the mantle watching us wondering where to put them I come from the tulip garden tall stems like picket fences that need painting petals drop and rest in dirty sunshine sullen remnants of the bloom... Continue Reading →
Roots, Worms, and Blossoms How will the promise of age rest upon my skin? As it does the forgotten apple? The sad Macintosh left under a tree withered and no good for a pie? Will time brand me with pinches smudge my shiny skin and deplete my rightful size? Or will I be the old... Continue Reading →
Parenting, it is argued, is most difficult when your kids are young. When the likelihood of their choking on a cigarette butt found on the ground at the neighborhood spring festival is high. And there are those who believe that parenting is most difficult when your kids are older. And the likelihood of their smoking... Continue Reading →
We're metal, we're 'Mericans. We mine it, we make it, we drive it, we drink it. We're metal. We have it in our teeth. Our joints. Our jewelry. Our music. So when they told me I had toxic levels of metal in my blood: mercury, barium, and lead, I said, "Toxic?" I am not toxic.... Continue Reading →
via Daily Prompt: Acceptance Of all the things that have saved my life, my sanity, or at least brought survival into the realm of possibility when none existed before, acceptance reigns. And whether I was surviving a moment, a month, or a catastrophe, as in a really big lifetime blow, acceptance did the job of... Continue Reading →
My oldest daughter Riana was fascinated by numbers when she first discovered them as a child. Numerals actually. She had no concept, really, of what numbers were, no understanding of value or measurement. When she was a toddler these were words she knew and knew she liked. Funny, now she is teaching statistics, but then... Continue Reading →
pocket poet 