Unexpected Playmates

March 19, 2019.Reading time 4 minutes.

Rain has been threatening all morning, but I’m anxious to get outside, so the compromise is to drive to the end of the street and see if anything is happening. An osprey is on the ground in the middle of the parking lot. Rolling down the window, I snap some photos. The bird doesn’t budge, […]

V.J.’s Weekly Challenge #40: Things My Father Said*

March 18, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

(* or any male of influence growing up.) I can’t count the number of times my father’s words hover over me, even though he’s been gone since 2005. He was the king of platitudes – constantly quoting (and making us recite) the works of Dale Carnegie, or Norman Vincent Peale. “Mind over matter,” he’d say […]

So Many Questions

March 17, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

Questions are piling up over here, with very few answers. Isn’t that life? And maybe that is the point: we are meant to reflect, to ponder, to search, to explore. As a teacher, the emphasis was on inquisition: teaching children to think beyond the obvious, find the tools to research deeper. In this ever-increasing digital […]

Fences In Black & White (with poem)

March 16, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

Look at us building fencespretending we have differences do we not hunger the samehunt in the same places do we not strive with equal intentbuild our nests with the same ferocity forgo passion to survive?Let us stop pretending let down these walladmit to our vulnerabilities align our purposesfight a more fearsome foe. (Cee’s black and […]

So Where Do Sailors Go To Smoke?

March 15, 2019.Reading time less than 1 minute.

For Proscenium’s Friday Follies.

If I Knew; I’d Change It

March 15, 2019.Reading time 2 minutes.

I’m struggling with myself. It isn’t the first time, and I’m certain it won’t be the last. There is no definable reason, and yet my emotional self tries to find blame: it’s Ric’s behaviour; it’s because I’m homesick; it’s my illness. Rationally, I recognize that my life is full of blessings right now, and this […]

Close Encounters: Reptiles

March 14, 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

The heavy cloud cover of yesterday is breaking up allowing for small pockets of sunshine. The temperature is hot, almost muggy. We are headed back to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. “Better get my camera ready,” I tell Ric. “Last time we saw that coyote just before the entrance.” “Yes, and it was motoring! Not a […]

Breeding Season

Golden this heart, this plea no makeshift proposal I am smitten, hard bitten, sold – be bold! Be bold! say you are sold, also smitten accept this proposal this heart, forever golden. (A mirror cinquain for Dark Side of the Moon’s weekly challenge. I’ve also worked in the prompts of Fandango (makeshift) and Ragtag Community […]

Imagining Genius

Imagine befriending genius – accepting social awkwardness embracing habitual quirks as incubation for enlightenment. If I could strip down, release preconceived notions, agendas, lie naked, exposed, in shallow waters, intimately entwined, unencumbered by sexuality or gender protocols, I would shake this sensual impotency – become one with creativity. As my father, wounded, I am inhibited […]

Revelation

No sound, no movement the bullfrog obliges lens – I am conqueror, superior – then espy miniscule me in his eye. (A tanka for Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge: sound/ motion. Image from personal collection. I am pondering the unanswerable this week, and I think this poem fits – conjures questions about where we all […]