Sep 18
poem 8 comments challenge: RBG

Notorious RBG (You are still here)

I don’t know what to say.
Rest In Peace sounds so hollow being typed on my phone’s keyboard.
You’ll never know how we mourned you
Now that you’re
Gone.
You’ll never know how it all ended;
What happens to the world now that you’re
Gone?
I wrote your life down on a piece of paper last spring
And it still slipped away.
Somehow I thought you’d still be there the day I died,
Putting on your lace collars
And dissenting.
I’m not qualified to sing your praises,
But thank you for everything you ever did.
Thank you for doing something that made us cry now that you're
Gone.
I hope maybe
You caught a glimpse of what we would do
Without you
Somehow, some way,
But the truth is
You made me realize
Just as you were leaving
How little time we have
To stay.
I don’t know what to say.
I should have thanked you while you were still here
To listen.
Read More
Posted: 09.18.20
Jul 30
visual/photos/art 2 comments

Whisk

Jul 26
poem 0 comments challenge: CJP-2020

Puzzle pieces

Maybe your mind feels like a tangle of worries,
but there’s a web of invisible hands holding you up.
Maybe your body is a little bit broken,
but we are all putting ourselves back together behind closed doors.

You are not alone.
Let that be your mantra when the voices in your head are screaming too loud.
You are not alone.
Whisper it to yourself when there’s no one else to whisper for you.
You are not alone.
Someone else is going through what you are going through
and we are all putting ourselves back together
a little bit at a time.
It’s okay to cry.
It’s okay to be mad.
Let this be your mantra when the tears won’t stop rolling.
It’s okay.
It’s okay.
Maybe it’s not okay.
That’s okay.
You are strong.
You are all you need
to get through this,
to get better,
to get there.
But that wall of invisible hands
is holding you,
holding you,
Read More
Posted: 07.26.20
Jul 25
fiction 0 comments challenge: Poetry or Prose-2020

Paint-soaked dreams

Many people ride on trains. They have become so popular that we wrapped metal ropes around the earth to let them roam across it. Generations have made their living building these ropes; binding our planet so we can get from one place to another without breaking a sweat. Some trains send exhaust spiraling into the air, a dancing smoke signal siren who calls you back to Old England, and times before we worried a little more with every mile we chugged, or drove, or sailed. Some trains hum to the music of electromagnets pushing you forward, into a future of white metal and sleek cities. Some trains tunnel through dark, graffitied, underground hallways, sifting hundreds of people around a city through a claustrophobic tube. Many people ride on trains.
Read More
Posted: 07.25.20
Apr 30
poem 8 comments challenge: CJP-COVID19

In My Back Yard

Twin bug bites stain my legs
The spring breeze plays with loose pieces of my hair
And my soul
I don’t know if I like the taste of this tangy lollipop better
Or the the way the orange contrasts against the blue of my tank top
I have to take it out of my mouth to admire this every few minutes
And to relieve my taste buds of its sweet tang.
I'm proud of the way a scrunchy holds my hair almost in place
A little smoother than it used to be.
I let my legs revel in the feel of the air rushing past them
Because they haven’t felt it in months
The sun shines brighter than it did from inside
Trying to solve the mysteries of tangents and parabolas
I love the people I share the sun with
And all I can feel is joy.
Read More
Posted: 04.30.20
Mar 26
poem 0 comments

Asphalt Ballet

One pair of purple sneakers
Jets attached, ready to launch.
One smoothly-paved hill
Asphalt rolling like a solid river runway.
One dreamy
Pastel, spring night
Someone drained the colors from this photograph.
One girl 
Eyes glazed over from staring at a bright, shiny, screen all day
Breathing in the fresh summer air like an icy glass of water.

She is more than ready
Now she is going.

She is sprinting down the hill
Pushing as hard as she can go against gravity
Flying towards the gray mother sky
Who reaches out arms to her, then tugs away
Teasing and daring her
To come farther 
Faster

She is faster than speed.
She is light.

She is flying
It is freedom
It is wind
It is joy

She loves the wind.
Her heart is bubbling up with joy.

It is laughter
It is crazy
It is stomping

Read More
Posted: 03.26.20
Mar 24
poem 5 comments challenge: CJP-COVID19

Leaving home

I wonder about the people who are desperate enough to enter a crowded room
while our governments are telling us not to leave our houses.
Do they need food?
A job too crucial to risk losing?
Is it something that makes our world work the way it does?
Are you the silent cogs that keep this clock turning?
We see pictures online,
on TV,
one woman
head bent, mask surrounding her mouth,
walking quickly across the deserted city.
I don't think she has time to stop and see how beautiful it is,
the silence,
the empty places always filled by bodies.
If it weren't a health concern, I would love to see the world this way
like a movie set,
like you could lean against a wall too hard
and the whole thing would come toppling down.
Are these people like that?
Only thinking of themselves
but not of their health, or the rest of the world?
I don't think so.
I hope they stay safe.
Read More
Posted: 03.24.20
Feb 17
poem 2 comments challenge: Reach

If I could

I play tag with the horizon
And she always wins.
Each time I think I catch her silhouette 
Tracing the mountains and far oceans
-In soft pinks and blues-
She wafts ahead
In fresh mint
And disappearing orange
And I dash after
My small arms not quite reaching
The breadth of my sight.

Someday I will find the edge of the land and the water and the sky
Where earth drops into black matter
And I drop
Into the arms of
Mama Sunlight 
And she will hold me
And I'll hold her
And we will fly together.

For now
I'll run across the landscapes that lead to her
And brush humanity with all my fingertips
And dive deep
Toes first
Into rhythm and movement and sound
And paint life into my soul
With each laughing stroke.

So I'll
keep running 
And keep stretching
If only I could reach
A little farther.


 
 
Read More
Posted: 02.17.20
Jan 24
poem 1 comment

For My Sister, In Her Year Of The Rat

Little sister
You are not little anymore
And to me
You're really more like a twin. 
I have grown with you
And you have grown with me
And you were my first friend
And you are my best
And you are the best.
You are funny
And sometimes loud
But sometimes I am louder.
You are light
And spontaneous starwatching
And you are impatient 
But you hold a kind of patience I could never master.

This year is for you.
It's yours to take
By ancient birthrights.
I made up for one of my frustrating, half-thought-out games
But that doesn't make it any less real
For Harry, it may be inside your head
But you can still reach it, grasp it
And even then reach farther than you ever could imagine.
You are the best kind of weird that ever was
If that's what they want to call it
But I call it
Strong
Unique
Beautiful

Read More
Posted: 01.24.20

Pages