The tenor for the trip was set when the two mild, innocent-looking Midwestern girls got up from their seats on the Greyhound, a few hours before it was set to arrive in New Orleans, and went into the tiny bathroom at the back of the bus together. They emerged an hour later looking hot: tube tops and frilly skirts, full make-up, glitter, and curled hair, ready for New Orleans. This was Mardi Gras, folks. I was, at the time...

I draw a circle with a stick, so big I have to walk a ways to join its ends. Dust rises as I drag: steam from a train, smoke from a pipe. Pa smoked a pipe and it smelled fine. My circle is a farm for my animals. Right now they live in my dress, in a pocket. I collected them from the bed of the old roadside stream. I'm going to keep all sorts. Pigs and cows and chickens and mice. I’m going to keep a tiger too, in a special...

As I sit and watch the day begin I realize I have been here for some time A peace connects with my soul Time is standing still I don't think of the cancer growing in my body I don't think of being alone I remember all the good I have seen All the smiles and laughter I have shared A new chapter in my life has started How do I accept and not question How do I take control I don't want to walk alone I am scared Time is stand...

I had a bit of a debate on Reddit a few weeks ago with a high school physics teacher that stated his students have to solve the problem the way he showed them how to solve the problem. I stated I liked showing students that there may be easier methods to solve specific types of problems, and I would be tickled pink if a student of mine solved a problem with a novel approach. The physics teacher reiterated the students sol...

Strange, isn’t it? Those small things that get listed in the memo pad of the mind. Brief, inconsequential in their setting, and outcome, yet noted, sharp and clear as any major incidents that give our lives direction. A lifetime ago, drawn by the music, I briefly lived in the thrall of Laura. The music lives on, rarely heard today, yet, when it is heard, it becomes slyly evocative. Laura—and Benny Goodman giving out with...

It takes time and patience, To cure my toxic ways, My awareness and presence, Needed now almost always, Live to die a little, I die every day Ask me how I am doing, I would lie in every way Hero of my own story? But who are the villains? Wear a cap every day, and battle my feelings, I look at the end of the bottle and get another one, There will always be another one, I tell myself sometimes… Life is funny till you get th...

A dream come true in real life is like last year’s dandelions blooming into roses. This is when the virus that causes MS is discovered. Then a vaccine and new treatments are developed, and MS is no longer a menace. MS is the Crispr of life. It is a harsh and unrelenting editor of many abilities and activities. It is like a shredder. Thirty years of dandelions bloom into roses and my dream comes true.

My heart has been ripped straight up through my throat and right out of my head to the stars. You might feel loss like this too, but did you also know that a new spark can start a new fire that even warms my heart with forgiveness so that I can throw off my anger to dance with the wind again? Don’t you deserve to feel the freedom of forgiveness too? Don’t you deserve to dance with the wind again too?

When I was younger, my father called me his little nest—his little heir. My earliest memories were of him holding me close, like he couldn't bear me being too far away, like I was the lightning rod that kept him grounded in the middle of a thunderstorm. His skin always smelled of freshly tilled soil and mint leaves; his hair of the honey-and-fruit scented pomade that my An'na specialized in making. Other warriors reek of...

It was between him and her, and her and her, and like always I was caught in between, a bottle of bourbon trapped between my thighs while I nursed the glass—the alcohol burned fresh paths down my throat, drawing parallels with the scars that ran down my arms. This was the way things would always be and the clock constantly ticked at the back of my mind, because this was it—this was my last chance. "I love you." To my whis...

The old man sat at the table, watching the couples dance. He stared into his glass of Schnapps. The taste did nothing for him. Nothing did anything for him anymore. He wasn’t sure why he’d come. The lecturers and professors got younger every year. He felt they only invited him because they knew he had nowhere else to go. He doubted they’d even notice if he slipped away before the bells rang out. He wondered if many of the...

The air tasted like lavender body wash and gunpowder. Fireworks dotted the night sky as the bang-bang-bang of New Year explosives ricocheted off the buildings in New Glory. Avery sucked in a deep breath and her hands to the moon, meaty palms up. It was glorious indeed, the diamonds twinkling in the city's shields to represent the stars no one had seen for centuries. It was— "Can you please cease your pointless monologue?"...

Oh God, I want to get out of here," she moaned aloud to no one in particular. "Leave? Before the fireworks at midnight?" I, handsomely dressed in a black suit, slipped onto a barstool beside her. “Do I know you, sweetie?” She didn't turn towards me when she talked and nervously moved her clutch closer to her hourglass figure; my heart sank hearing the pills rattling inside their bottles that she kept hidden in her purse....

I glanced up from my desk and there she stood – a smallish-framed, disheveled woman with a noticeably dirty blouse, hands, and face. "May I help you?" My lips downturned at the thought of her grubby hands touching my precious books. Her face flushed, apparently aware of my thoughts, then a brittle voice asked, "Sir, I would be happy if you could point me toward a great story of adventure, but first a washroom where I may...

Prayer Denied Kneeling at a marker was a soldier’s widowed wife crying condemnation to the God that took his life. Gently running fingers over letters etched in stone, she wept and whispered softly that she felt so all alone. Trapped inside the moment when he kissed his girl goodbye, then left her scared and praying “Dear God, please don’t let him die”. But sadly, a denial’s how He answered her request – lost everything t...