Pages

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

This Damn Year

Finally 
This damn year
Is coming to an end
The hours
I've poured into 
Work
And 
Worry 
For what!? 
A small reward 
They say 
Don't work too much 
You'll miss your life
And yet
When trapped 
By circumstance 
You do the best you can 
My health 
My life 
Has slipped away 
This year 
Fustercluck 
Cluster 
Fluck 
The end 
Of it
Is terrifying 
What comes next
Hang on

An hour

A reprieve 
An hour 
Where I thought 
 it stopped 
But no
My body says 
No
 Whatever you are doing 
Is wrong 
Fix it 
 I don't know how 
Another night 
Fitful sleep 
I think this is just 
 How it is 
I wake up 
 Sore
Tired
 Aching 
It never stops 
Never 
 No 
Never 

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Darkness

The full moon over Mt. Timpanogos Captured by Daniel Phillips

Darkness 
The darkest nights of the year 
have been lingering 
in our subconscious 
Echoes of history unfolding 
We witness 
Aware 
Of the significance of these dark nights 
We stand
Hearts 
Breaking 
Though we know, that great countries 
Have seen nights
Like this one
In winter 
The nights are long

Friday, December 13, 2024

To my family

 I think sometimes about reunions

where we kids could wander from campsite to campsite

and feel welcome

I think of early mornings

holding a place at the 4th of July parade

So that we could all sit together

I think of Aunts who watched me when I was little

Uncles teased me

All of the prayers of concern for each other

all of the efforts to make sure 

that we were OK

Right now

well

somehow

he

became this abstract concept 

this person 

that could do no wrong

after hearing gossip about people 

who did much minor things

I know that perhaps

you see him

differently

somehow

but I don't know how you could

he's bad

and the fact that you support him

makes me sad

Sunday, December 8, 2024

The Reconing - Author Unknown

WORTH READING IN IT’S ENTIRETY:

The Reckoning-
I cannot let this day slip by
without shouting into the void of my disappointment.
The charges are gone, swept like dust under a gilded rug,
and yet the truth remains, burning:
He was guilty.
You know it.
I know it.
The weight of it presses against my chest,
how a man so stained could hold the reins again.
He ran for power to shield himself,
a crown to escape the scales of justice.
He will pardon himself,
stand smug on the green of manicured lies,
a golf swing on our dime,
while we watch,
while we ache.
Do you remember?
He told them to march.
I saw it.
I was there, and the echoes of that day
still ricochet in my mind.
I will not forget.
I will not forgive.
Not the man who lit the match,
nor the hands that handed him the flame.
You who cast your vote,
for cheaper gas, for eggs, for promises spun from deceit,
or worse—
you, who saw the ugliness and shrugged.
He is a bigot, and it didn’t stop you.
He is cruel, and you let it slide.
You looked away, silent, complicit.
And in that silence, the cracks widened.
The grave error was yours,
but I do not have the breath left
to plead with you to see.
I will watch as it unfolds,
as the curtain lifts on this tragedy we have built,
brick by brick, with our denial.
And when the moment arrives—
when the mask slips and the monster stands revealed—
it will be too late.
Do you see the bodies yet?
The ones already fallen,
the ones to come?
They are part of the price,
written in the fine print of your choices.
There is no blanket thick enough to hide under now,
no silence deep enough to escape the echo of what is coming.
None of us will walk away unscathed.
Not even you.
Author Unknown

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Roots

There was a sturdy tree
It's roots were so deep in the earth
That no simple wind could fell it
Seasons came and went 
the rain was plentiful 
Sunshine too
The tree grew
The leaves at the top said 
We are the reason 
You exist 
The roots were fooled by the plentiful rain
They had been spreading wide
Instead of deep
the breeze fell the tree 
that had forgotten it's roots

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Freedom

So we wait, with baited breath to see if there are enough of us to stand against the tide 
The waves of ignorance have been lapping at the shores
Waves of hatred, waves of anger 
Once again we've been beaten down 
Once again told our place 
We will not bow
To misogyny 
We stand!
Sisters!
We gather!
Women!
With many voices raised together we declare that we are free!
You cannot have my freedom 
I want none of your false "protection"
I am for liberty 
I am for truth 
And I have stood in the breech
Proclaiming 
Freedom!