Have you ever bled words solely to purge the thought, nay, to purge God forsaken pictures from your head? But, how preposterous to ask such a question. Of course you have.

I know what that's like.

Like the tale of the door and the death on the… Read full post »

Mostly a ghost writer, I bleed words from soul to fingertip, signed by a name not my own.

My sister tells me I'm a born caregiver. What else can I be when need seeks out my heart with unspoken whispers? Yet to figure out how to silence the whispers, I'm not… Read full post »

The eulogy would have
made him proud,
I like to think. 

Oh, how they
laughed, followed
by hiccupped tears
and the soft swoosh
of kleenex pulled
from the box. 

One by one my sisters

and brothers

Sharing memories,

some of them
broke. sobbed.
face in hands,
should… Read full post »

If you haven't read Keka's post yet, do.

I wish I could remember a time, Keka, of innocent childhood dreams. A time before darkness slid into our house like fog in a late night horror picture. Before silent tears that little ones shouldn't cry and certainly not so often.  

It… Read full post »

Not poetry... I'm no poet. Just broken prose, really.

In the beginning, they’re wonderful, the cheerleaders.

Soul pumping inspiration that sings to your psyche

until one day, perhaps at 8 pm

on a cloudy Wednesday evening

when you realize

you’re the lone player on the field

the… Read full post »

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things
which escape those who dream only by night.

EDGAR ALLAN POE
"Eleonora"

photo credit; Brugge Castle Read full post »

Do you know who the caregivers are here on OS? I'd like to find to all the caregivers -- if you know of any, can you post them or PM me or send them over to say hi?   

• people caring for an elderly parent
• or a spouse that's
… Read full post »

There's a chunk of snow hanging off my roof - it spans more than half the width of my deck and hangs down over 2 feet. It's going to make one heck of a thump when it falls. Snow piled to the doorknob on my back door. Welcome to Sasquatch country today;

Another… Read full post »

Clickety clack, clickety clack. The sound went on hour after hour. Farmboys, all twelve of them, hitching a ride on a coal freight train that had three empty cars. Plenty enough room for a dozen strapping young men traveling 2,000 miles from their farmland homes in Northern Saskatchewan to the big… Read full post »

It's been a rough week.
Instead of working, as I should be,
I find myself here, clicking away the night.

And then I clicked Sally's post.
Read This! Then Decide WTF Is Really Important

I clicked through to the life and death post.
And there it was, about halfway down.
My complete undoing;… Read full post »

A lot of people seem to think a misogynist is an abusive man.
And it can be.
But not always.

A misogynist is someone that hates women... and
Misogyny also infects women.

Ever heard a woman say "OMG, I like MENZ better than womenz..."
(really?  what about, say, Ted Bundy? You like… Read full post »

I bolt upright, listening.
 
Were those footsteps? Please don't let that be footsteps.
I peek out the doorway. Grab my robe. Tiptoe down the hallway,
furtively watching for shadows that move. Listening.

Shh. Shh. Barely breathing. 

Silently, I slip into the kitchen, press the button and
sin… Read full post »

pressed into the corner
of the closet
hidden behind long
silky party dresses
that smelled of mommy, the
darkness wrapped it's arms
around me like a blanket

silent tears streaming
hotter than the welts
freshly belted into my flesh.
they would heal,
the welts,
faster than my heart,
looking back

His words rin… Read full post »

If you saw a man with no legs in a wheelchair, you wouldn't push him out of the wheelchair and tell him to just freaking walk, would you? Of course not. Clearly, you see that he can not. Seeing is believing, as they say. And thus, the real problem with… Read full post »

I always know when he's thinking. He sits like Rodin's thinker, head in one hand. Lost in thought..

"What are you thinking, Dad?" I asked, sitting down in the high backed deck chair beside him.  It was getting dusky out.

He looked up at me with wide, round milky eyes.… Read full post »

I can see his bones poking through the back of his shirt as I watch him through the window. He knows I'll work a bit and come back. But sometimes, I pause to watch him as he sits there, enjoying the sun on his skin

It all started in March. Dad's in the hospital, com… Read full post »

If I keep my eyes straight ahead, I won't see it there,
haunting me from the corner of my eye.
 
The bits of straw under the table overflowing with food.
Tall twisty candles that made little eyes shine.
May I light the candles this year, Mama, may I?

Dad laughing, proudly bringing in… Read full post »

Corneille will never forget the night she left her aunt's house to fetch water and was attacked and raped. She'd crawled back to her aunt's house and said nothing, ashamed. She says her baby, named Joy, is the only brightness in her future. Corneille is only 13.

Some mothers get… Read full post »

He's gone, now, but he didn't even learn to talk until he was almost 4. Didn't do so well in school either.

12 weeks into the first grade, his teacher called his mother and told him… Read full post »

At precisely 5:21 a.m., 20 thousand men, women and children parted like the Red Sea to let the young man pass by.

Flanked by deputies and followed by a Catholic priest, Rainey Bethea passed through the crowd. He stopped at the base of the platform to pull on clean… Read full post »

There's been a lot of "belief" posts recently. Me - my questions are bigger than my beliefs.  One in particular.

I've been asking this question since I was a small child, and no one can answer me. I'm older than dirt now and I still haven't found the… Read full post »

Read full post »

Yesterday, I posted a piece called "Ego, Ethics & the OS cover. Rant Alert..."  Really great conversations in there.  And this gem...
 
(comment #61) BBE said:

"Have you ever considered that cuteboysmakemenervous and Joyce of the Hard Balls might be editors or Salon Staff writers go… Read full post »

 Thanks to Dorinda and Odetteroulette for inspiring this...

Last night, I read Dorinda's post "Writing and Ethics." She said she reminds students that "learning to write and communicate persuasively comes with ethical considerations."

Not a fan of debasing humor, I loved her post. But at t… Read full post »

Somyr Perry started it.  I found it through Skeptic Turtle. And then it took over recent posts. Mine was inspired by The Objectification of Men, by marytkelly, whose writing always inspires me.

“He doesn’t talk to me enough,” she said.
 “She d… Read full post »