Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: four seasons, scarcity, paradoxical, starts working instantly, 3,000 miles, money, it’s a breeze, pockets of resistance, until I begin to write, have I ever told you the story of. . ., listening, Argentina, they moo Jenny wanted to go to Argentina, but when she pulled on … Continue reading Pockets of Resistance
Because April is National Poetry Month, I've decided to share with you some ekphrastic poems I've written this past year. Ekphrastic poems are written about works of art, most often visual art like paintings and sculpture, but they may be about a performance piece like dancing, acting, or film. This poem reflects on a lovely … Continue reading Rivers, inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s Chama River, Ghost Ranch 1937
When Jenna arrived at the border, she was surprised to find a guard at the gate. His jaw was square and his lips were pinched into a straight line, as if he’d spent a lifetime clenching his teeth. “Who did you used to be?” she asked him. He didn’t smile but his face visibly relaxed … Continue reading At the Border
Striding through the airport this morning, Destiny notes the typical presence of newspapers—Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today—held aloft by focused readers in pin-stripes and gray flannel, wing-tips and tasseled loafers. Destiny marches on, aware that the rustle of thin paper is growing louder--flapping, cawing, squawking. She realizes suddenly these are not newspapers … Continue reading Paper Birds
I am a dust mote, a speck, a barely perceptible particle, created, not from nothing, but from destruction— the breakdown of something large into something tiny— tattered leaves crushed blossoms mown grass sloughed-off human skin, hair, fur floating DNA memories dreams. I am seemingly insignificant I have no personal agency I go where I am … Continue reading Dust Mote
The Secret to Rubber-Soled Shoes The secret to rubber-soled shoes is that they are often imbued with the ghosts of deceased dogs, dogs who were loyal and eager to serve, dogs who want to cradle the foot of a beloved pack member protecting you from gravel-strewn trails and unyielding cement floors, dogs who want to … Continue reading The Secret to Rubber-Soled Shoes
In a land where the river was filling with salt, and the water was creeping into the garden patch, the iguanas climbed high and the sloths slunk low, and the natives called the avocados “alligator pears.” The big green fruit was infamous for its pebbly skin. Some claimed they were reptile eggs, and if … Continue reading Alligator Pears
Because it was my birthday this week, I decided to re-publish one of my very own favorites. Meow. . . After midnight the day-old loaves of bread in the bakery turn into slumbering cats. Some are brown and toasty, some white and fragrant, some calico dotted with black, brown and golden patches that used to … Continue reading Bread Cats
As a Valentine treat, I’m reviving a little romantic tale of an amorous, adventurous couple. Charlie was a regular guy living a regular life. Then he met Mabel and he slipped over the edge. Mabel was a force of nature, a combination Earth Mother/Ruth Bader Ginsberg no-nonsense intellectual feminine feminist who believed the world was a place … Continue reading Charlie and Mabel
Written with the prompts: just a dream away, as inanimate as a lamp, overlapping, you know the one, hurry/curry/flurry, urgent information, save time, new friends, three years ago, don’t you want more, live like, wander off, never made me feel inept, never been there before, area 51, guarded opinions I’ll remember that night three years … Continue reading Counterintuitive Curry
