Dancing In Heaven

November 8, 2017.Reading time 6 minutes.

“I’m in trouble!” My sister’s voice was weak but charged with panic. “Help me!” “What have you done?” She’d locked us all out of her apartment that weekend; said she was tired of being sick, tired of people hovering over her. She wanted to be independent. Reluctantly, we gave her space. I’d held my breath […]

Lessons From Ballroom Dancing

October 25, 2016.Reading time 6 minutes.

Early on in our relationship, Ric and I signed up for ballroom dancing classes. It was a small class for beginners, so we thought it might be a good fit; both of us loved to dance. “I’m not very good at letting someone else take the lead,” I confessed on the first night. “In dancing, […]

Discord

Does illness have a voice,and if so; is it melancholy,or dark and dank, divulgingdeepest despair, or revealinga vileness of nature? Discord creeps along my veins,disrupts muscles, systems failingunder the oppression –“Stay strong,” friends counsel,cannot hear the gathering storm,feel the heaviness cloaking me. I am not myself, but then;who am I? Is disease a mutationof the […]

Save Us

Discharge the gun –protection a vesselthrough which our depthsare undefined…adrift Fear is a burrowerwears a false crownbirths losstrusts danger Hearts beg,amid this trigger-readinessfor a guardian – unafraidto court this meaningless Futility unchecked –to study productive optionsunimaginable in the current state of chaos on repeat. (Art my own)

I Am Willow

These bones, they saywill finish me – too brittleto withstand the race But I am Willowrecollection wispymy dance defiant Porous as a sea spongesoaking up each daymettle despite the rattle (Tuesdays I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own.)