What’s In A Name

June 14, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

What’s her name?Simple questionfrom mother to son –recognizing the love-liftedjoy of his countenance. I cannot tell, said he,you’ll ask too many questions.Do I know her?No, Mom, she’s Somali.And Muslim. I felt my whitenessand all its privilegeslap me, stumbled Of course she is welcome,of course it does not matter. Had no sense of the depthof my […]

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #99: privilege

June 8, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

“A store in town has activity books for the kids; can we go?” Now that we’ve expanded our bubble, I’m thinking of ways to entertain the grandchildren. I haven’t set foot in a store for three months. The idea excites me. “Better put on something decent,” I tell Ric laughingly. I pull out a top […]

Mother

When I had a mothermy hair would cascadein curls of auburn perfectiona red velvet bow to accentuate the wave And I’d wear my bestnewly sewn frockwith lace at the neckand fishnet stockingsand patent Mary Janes And the girls giggling with delightwould skip hand-in-handto the school promand the boys shyly perchedagainst the back wall would wonderhow […]

Lull (tanka)

Self-Sufficient

Isolated and incapacitatedI am prohibited from partakingof the influx of information incessantly presented consequently cut offfrom prescribed expectationsdictating costuming and culture external expressions of acceptanceare sorely missing, suggestingan overall lack of self-worth. Interestingly inverse to such conclusionsis the sudden contentment that arisesfrom escaping the mayhem Internal relief overrides dictated performancesurrendering willingly to intrinsic motivationand renewed […]