day 6, different points of view

a hero and role model
someone he strives to be
a life partner and lost love
she loses herself in grief
a harmless, dirty old man
they pity what he had become
an abuser, torturer, tormentor,
she can never forgive

day 5, nature

cobweb lightning stabbing 

behind the eyes

and in the dimming sky

pressure building

in the temples

and tingling atmosphere

dull thunderous roars 

in the distance

and in the head

the tension breaks

as rain falls

mixed with tears

twofer

Day 3, an elegy

Sondheim and Phantom
the tunes of our summers
and weekends.
state fairs, show tunes,
Pictionary, polka,
turtles, tears,
movies and matinees.
a soul mate and kindred spirit
taken from the world
too soon.
"not a day goes by" when I
won't "think of you".


Day 4, an enigma

soft cotton sheets,
her favorite roses,
sun beams on a brick road
to Oz. a twist
of lemon and joy
inside out over
the color of her hair.

Day 2, A Recipe

combine all ingredients:

passion, obsession,

anxiety, depression,

intensity, feminism,

loyalty, optimism,

honesty, sympathy,

compassion, empathy,

kindness, constant need to perfect,

loneliness, and hearts that have seen

much neglect

Another year, another NaPoWriMo

Day 1, I may be a little rusty at this (and I'm not really up to the prompt)

staring at the screen
again. anxiety strangling
every thought with
thorn covered what if vines.
what if
I fail
I'm always alone
I never help him
or her
or anyone
ever
the things that I do
are forgotten by the
family I never could have.

Final Portfolio

So, I had a hard time keeping up with my blogging during classes but here's the final versions I turned in for my course.

The Jump

She surrendered to the dream

within a café and the hope

of once dying embers

expanded out.

Anticipation arrives as restless wind;

their future, vague,

yet full of trepidatious longing.

He has been gone all

of two weeks, and still

he appears on the train

at her door

with open arms

promising a life together, shouting

his words skyward:

I need you like air, nicotine,

and conflict. Three years

of heartache will endure…

She reaches to him

and touches his hand –

he is not yet there.

hot sauce

red stains on the wall,

a reminder of shattered glass,

kool-aid dripping to the floor.

stale whiskey on his breath,

spoiled hot sauce in the trash,

an unforgiveable offense.

the red stains weep

for the shattered girl upon the floor.

self loathing

droplets of blood welling up

in half-moon tears up and down her arms.

scar tissue gouged

in the depths of one too young to comprehend

that the horror he felt

for his deviant genetics was not

her fault.

when his own blood splattered

hotel walls, she understood,

her love could never save him from himself.

she commemorates with ink

‘Ruin is a gift’

where he’d left his mark

so many years before.

Seeking

My longing is a hole that is nothing

but what remains around it. Once,

I wanted to be the white wind. Once,

I wanted anyone to fill me. I reach

for anyone willing. A soldier buttons himself

back into khaki, he looks up at me

and rubs his eyes, but I

am not there. A strange lostness

bodily present, the same body

broken open. Tell me what you know

about a body, and I will tell you how

it turns against itself. Letting the space

I free up remain vacant, a room that

remains locked, pieces of the moon

leaving for an empty home.

Nobody loves this genius child.

hot sauce

red stains on the wall,

reminder of a shattered

glass

kool-aid on the floor.

his unpredictable

rage

stale liquor on his breath.

another violent retaliation

for an unforgiveable offense.

spoiled hot sauce in the trash,

shattered glass upon the floor.