Stereotype

Shoved into their stereotype
to do the right thing
nothing dangerous, nor unpredictable
just follow father’s path,
listen to mother’s words
hearing what’s good for me—
to be the same, molded
to be good, to be better than you
to be right, and you wrong
in their eyes, not mine.

Black and White

Image by Doris Rudd

Black and White

When the wind whistles through

the limbs of the old maple tree,

and the December rain turns to snow

the world seems colder

And as the sky turns gray

the clouds pass over thick,

covering our home with its shadow

the world feels lonelier

a photograph,

without color,

feels the same

since you’ve been gone.

Morning

The light peeks between the slats of the blind

creating today’s first shadow upon our sleepless bed.

It’s early, my mind already ahead of the clock

poising to scream us awake at any minute.

And the room is filled with the aroma of fresh coffee,

brewing in our small but cozy kitchen.

It stirs me to walk across the floor, cold with January’s breath

to drink its vitality I so need.

And it’s just then, when I am ready to slip out of bed

I realize that it’s you darling, laying next to me - I crave more.

Pull Up The Sheets

The most interesting thing about dreams is you get to experience all the “stuff” with seemingly no consequences, commitment, etc, etc and so and so forth…you get the picture.

But there are times you dream something you want to keep. You want to be able to reflect back and say, yeah, I was there, or I did that. In those cases I am usually left with a distinct feeling inside. And though I rarely remember anything other than the fact I know I dreamt something, it is these cases that the dream is vivid and sticks inside my noodle as if it was the marinara sauce.

Here it is:

The dream is at a writers conference, which is in the near future. So I seem to be dreaming events that have yet to happen. This conference is special because I plan on meeting a fellow writer and close friend at the conference. Though I feel I have known her for a bazillion years we have yet to meet face to face.

So the dream progresses where I am in the big ass room where the event has been going on. The place is full of poets and writers from all over the state. It is your typical seminar/conference atmosphere with people mingling and making small talk, discussing the poet’s frame of mind, the angle of the prose and all that good stuff we talk about. The weird thing is how I can remember this after dreaming it 3 days ago.

Walking through the crowd I suddenly realize that I have yet to spend any time with my friend whom I so wanted to get together with for so long. I become frantic and increasingly stressed knowing that it is the last day of the conference and I have wasted the opportunity to sit face to face with my long time writing twin. And twin is a good term I think. As the years have passed, her and I have almost consumed each other’s brain I feel, so that we have similar thoughts, can understand each other’s frame of mind, that kind of thing. Almost like a marriage, sorry to use that term, but as some people confess that after so many years you have that invisible umbilical cord connecting you together, not in a restrictive way, but in a good way.

So here I am running through this sea of writers in search of my missing friend. CAN’T FIND HER! Now I am to the point of really freaking out as I know the time is short and I wanted to spend every possible minute with her. I don’t know what to do. Suddenly I see, my Dad. Yes, my friggin’ Dad is at the conference! So I ask him where is ****? Like he is supposed to know who that is. And as her and I have discussed yesterday, I may need counseling due to the fact my Dad is in this dream at this particular moment. Not sure where that came from and not sure I wanted to know. Well he doesn’t know and I continue to search the conference area trying to find her. Never did.

To end this dream story I woke up incredibly stressed out and had some anxiety the whole day because the dream was so vivid and the feelings were so strong.

So I am hoping that I am not very good at all at foretelling the future and that at the fall conference we get a chance to catch up and face to face have some crazy conversation that we often do over the airwaves. That would be a dream come true…