The unexpected humidity of a late April night curled the wisps of hair on my damp, exposed neck. The stillness of the air lay as heavily as a predator patiently waiting, the stars shining like sharp white teeth in the moonlight. Continue reading Hunting
From the window of a moving train you can see only the big picture. Clouds and a wall of green move past like a dream that vanishes when you wake. To focus on one tree or one house or cloud makes your eyes cross with a feeling of hurtling into space from the broken safety harness of a runaway roller coaster, causing the hours old coffee in your stomach to rise thickly into your throat. Continue reading The Big Picture
Stuckeys signs rise into the sky like lamp posts lighting the way from rest stop to bathroom break to late night motels with swimming pools (yay!) In between the miles I read every passing billboard – especially the ones showing sophisticated grown ups holding cocktails and cigarettes (temptation!) White and yellow stripes disappear behind us in the endless flatlands of Texas dotted with pumping rigs like giant grasshoppers bolted in the earth. The first glimpse of purple mountain slopes rise on the horizon like a wonderous mirage after the boredom of dusty plains. Green valleys and twisty roads meander through … Continue reading Driving To New Mexico, 1973
used to mean confused bewildered disorganized messy Now it means something smooth refreshing piquant palate spritzing is being prepared by hands sophisticated dexterous graceful buoyant just for you. Cheers! Continue reading Muddled
Easter Sunday afternoon on the drive to Mamaw’s house we topped a hill (Like any other Mississippi hill) to see a tableau of wild jonquils, a riot of buttercream yellow and white, carpeting a gently sloping field. Mamma took our picture sitting among the flowers in the gentle spring sunlight, the three of us so young, so innocent, without a care except for wondering who would find the Queen’s nest full of treasure at the Easter egg hunt. Continue reading Polaroid Moment
You taught me how to shave my legs, the downy almost invisible blonde strands of silk falling to the razors swath, the last vestige of a child’s body helpless against the vanity of a teenagers critical eye. But I loved you, that summer, loved your shiny pageboy flip, your tweezed eyebrows and ice pale lips. You were sophisticated in a way I didn’t understand but coveted. Shaving my legs was only the beginning. Continue reading Summer of Mary
Disjointed dreams widen the cracks in a shifting foundation. Digestion creeps by degrees beneath the eroding surface swallowing right and wrong, skewing the underpinnings, cracking the ribcage, scattering rocks around disillusioned hearts. Continue reading Transitioning
Freedom is terror, Head thrown back, eyes to the stars, Sing, scream, dance of passions more vulgar devoured in glorious release Continue reading In the Dead of Night
Name me any color you like: Chartreuse Vermillion Cattleya Lay me in a bed of rare papyrus among prismatic swirls of paisley nesting sweetly into each other and fill me in. When finally your epicene brush lifts from the page, we’ll cry like fools, licking our tears of hue and tint from our rapturous faces. ________________________________ For inspiration I took the first four song titles from one of my playlists and incorporated them into a poem. The titles were: Fix You by Coldplay Any Color You Like by Pink Floyd Fool To Cry by The Rolling Stones Fill Me In … Continue reading Chroma
Desire flows, a natural watercourse moving towards an ocean, a lake, a sea of felicity. Its channels erode wider rather than deeper, becoming more expansive with time, flowing more freely more languidly more mindfully. Aqueous immersion. ___________________ Written from prompt for day 12, NaPoWriMo.net I replaced the word “river” with “desire”, although there isn’t much left of googled sentences contaning the word “river” in this. Continue reading Estuary
