To Touch or Not to Touch

August 2, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.

She was quite eccentric, and visibly older than most of the students attending our program. I’d had five years between first and second year, so I guess she was drawn to my maturity. We both wanted to be teachers. After graduation, she went on to her Bachelor of Education, and I gave birth to my […]

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #106: touch

July 27, 2020.Reading time 1 minute.

“Dear Grandma, We love you with all our hearts. We miss you and wish we couldtouch you and have sleepovers all the time. You are the best girlin the world and I love you so much and hate the coronavirus.” The note came in a homemade card, created and dictated by my four-year-old granddaughter. Touching […]

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 […]