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Texting with my daughter
Reminiscing
relationship
Gun
Is it for protection
or aggression
is happiness a warm gun
its cold barrow resting on cheek
held against my lips
finger trembling on trigger
if you try to disarm me
accidentally shoot me
who would believe you
after covering my body
with stones
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word stone— and my obsession with Gabby Petito homicide
Facebook Love
Facebook knows more about me
than I know about myself
it wants to embrace me
within its algorithms
show me my next vacation
what I should buy
based on my last search
who my friends really are
in a bombardment
of information and disinformation
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dVerse quadrille prompt using the word embrace
honing down on my love/hate relationship with Facebook
Ripening
Just a few more days
these bananas will be ripe
for banana bread
that is if no one eats them
can’t let that happen
going to hide them now
there will be banana bread
tomorrow
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NaPoWriMo prompt on a fruit. So hungry for banana bread. With the family sheltered in, it is hard to keep some foods from disappearing. Cashews are banned so we can’t fight over them anymore.
Deltiologist
Grandmother was a deltiologist
(she didn’t even know it)
postcards came to her
on special occasions
when her children took a trip
& when her husband
lived in Kansas City
that’s how they communicated
there was on most cards
an image worth keeping
Now I have her postcards
with handwritten messages
in cursive script
slanted out of a fountain pen
how the weather was
how are you I am fine
how your uncle got the flu
he is fine now
write again when you can
love & kisses xoxoxo
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NaPoWriMo prompt on something handmade and given to you. Handwriting was once an art even when sent on a postcard.
The Alabaster Box
Six days before Passover
Jesus came again to Bethany
Martha served Him dinner
& Lazarus sat at the table with Him
Mary brought out an alabaster box
of costly oil of spikenard
which was imported from India
Mary anointed the feet of Jesus
& wiped His feet with her hair
& the house was filled with the fragrance
Meeting a Writer at Lake Bosumtwi
When you return will you bring me a writing book?
the English was heavily accented
the face was young and inquiring
English I say
When you return will you bring me a writing book?
I heard the word clearer now and know of a request for book
any book I ask
a writing book
Are you a writer I am a writer
Then I remember that I have a small moleskin book in my bag
I bring out the book and present it to him
I hope he becomes a writer
I see him in the distance walking home with his book
We wave goodbye as I leave Lake Bosumtwi.
White Pelican
The first white pelican I saw was in Florida. My husband and I were driving past a pond and there it was resting on the water. I shout white pelican, white pelican. (We were sometimes birders.). Go around the block. He won’t do it. He keeps going. There is only so much pain I can wear on my face. I kept it there for days.
Now in Texas he says – did I tell you there were white pelicans on the lake yesterday? White pelican, white pelican. We walk to the lake seeing them from a distance. We keep walking to the shore and there they are, about a hundred more.
find white pelican
migration flight in winter
wipes the pain away
Ode to the Bridge
Praises to the bridge
in all your glory of design
you connect us
from land to land
how glorious is your name
that stretches over waters
unwavering you deliver us
from the other side
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dVerse prompt to write an ode
Task
Nothing is sexier
than a man
who makes his own ketchup
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PAD prompt – a task
wordshophop 