Brave is not just bold and blue nails with flowers on the thumbs. Or climbing a cargo net when you’re old enough for a social security net. It’s not just leaping tethered off a platform. Brave slips through circumstances as slick as melted butter. It treads the waters of trials and doesn’t drown. It forgets […]
Some Six-Word Memoirs
Lisa-Jo’s prompt for the day is “here.” I read it early this morning and had “here I am” running through my head until I sat down here. Then Laura reminded me I hadn’t written my six-word memoir yet. So here are five minutes (plus a minute) worth of six-word memoirs. 1. Here I am. […]
after may never come
She wrapped a towel around my neck and velcro’d the black cape around my shoulders. “Do you know what you want today?” I shrug. “Nope.” I never do. I just want her to fix me. And zap the gray. “Good. Because I’ve got something new. I’ve been dying to try this color on you.” […]
five minute friday: shattered
She threw the plate down on the carpet. Or maybe she dropped it. Either way, it shattered everywhere, even into the next two rooms. We stood in a sea of shards. With bare feet. She tried to run away, but I scooped her up in my arms. And then I woke up. This is […]
I will give you rest
It rests between the large jars of cinnamon and parsley, peeks at me from behind the glass restaurant-style sugar dispenser. Sissy gave it to me, this duckie tea infuser. I take it out, hold it in my palm, stroke it. I squeeze my eyes tight and think back to that day in the dollar store […]
my spiritual midwife: kay arthur
The walls around me contract and squeeze, pressing in and pushing out. I’m reaching, reaching. Her hand grabs mine, and she pulls. Then she crams colored pencils in my fist and says, “Go forth, and mark up your Bible.” The words become life to me, and this world is not my home. My home and […]
mama said never judge the inside by the outside
My mama. She was a clever one. And she loved practical jokes. They were probably separate Christmases, but they’re fused together in my mind. We were still in the little house. I sat on the couch facing the bathroom door and the tree draped with single strands of tinsel, oil stove on my left, gray […]
five minute friday: fingers of fear
I crack my right eyeball. He’s up on his left elbow, leaning over me, staring… …at the clock, I guess, on the nightstand next to me. Then he’s fiddling with his phone. Did it go off? Or not? After I complained about the radio blasting strange music at weird hours and having to wake […]
five minute friday: cherish
Cherish. He tells me its his favorite song. I’m looking back through the window of time. It’s our first date. We’re on our way to the Waterfall in Ann Arbor after the Philadelphia Orchestra’s concert. The tables are full, so we sit with another couple that we don’t know. When D tells them he […]
Five Minute Friday: The Staying Power of Scarlet
“Just hold on and suck in.” Scarlett grips the bedpost while Mammy yanks on the corset and cinches Scarlett’s waist down to 18-1/2 inches. Laces her up right tight. Molds her right to form. Bones bear down to bear her in. I think about bone that once bore down on another’s side, fragments that raked […]
