“What’s with the spooky images?” I’ve been experimenting with AI generated images. You tell the computer what you want it to create and it spits out a number of alternatives. Ric is looking over my shoulder. I shrug, not really knowing how to reply. At my age, with my mother contemplating death, many ghosts of […]
The certainty of yesterdayhas slipped our grasplight deflecting truthtossing us into the abstract I ponder processand outcomes,will my mind to carry megliding between thermalsdissolving into vapours Some realities too hard to bear –dislodged, we tread the indeterminate. (I submit these images and poem to the challenges of Lens-Artists and Ragtag Community. While we try to […]
Angel of Death. The name had started to stick. As a volunteer, working with the dying, my job was to help patients relax, ease some of their stress. “She needs you more than me,” on old Irish doctor said as we both arrived at a patient’s home simultaneously. “I can give her medication for the […]
“Mom, I want you to know that I don’t harbour any ill will toward our past. If I seek to know what happened, it is only to understand myself so that I might heal.” Mom nods, considers my words. “There is so much I could have done differently.” “No. You did what you could with […]
It snowed early that year, and those who gathered at the church hall were dressed to keep out the cold, mumbling about the weather, and helping themselves to warm beverages. Seems deaths come in threes, and this was the third of our family members we’d buried in as many months. “Where’s Uncle Charles?” I asked […]
I’ll be waiting for you in Heaven, daughter, although the roles we played in life have no bearing here – only souls congregating in spiritual reflection. Still the ties that bound us will be vivid, your mind, no doubt reeling in transition, the turmoil of earthly incarnation still buzzing in emotional swirls. I’ve had the […]
Really wasn’t your fault this fury that overcame – Words evoked onslaught, a raging river of pain. Didn’t mean to push you, miscalculated my aim, swimming in swamp waters not a recommended game. You floundered, gurgled, cursed me by name – our love story, now viral brought an alligator fame. ( A silly ditty for […]
We’ve come back to Coon’s Bluff in hopes of seeing the wild horses. The day is crystal blue, without a cloud in the sky. My heart is heavy. I woke up in the middle of the night, with the lines of a poem running through my head. Without turning on the light, I reached for […]
“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 […]
My aunt gave up her daughter for a chance at love. Can’t remember which marriage it was – there were seven in all – but he didn’t want children, so she just asked around if someone would take M, then sixteen. A few relatives tried, but my cousin, the depths of whose rejection is unfathomable, strayed […]