So happy to announce my poem The Closed Door has been chosen for publication in the anthology The Road Not Taken published by Local Gems Press.

Thank you Maddie McGivney and Bards President: James P. Wagner (Ishwa) for your continued support.

One wall holds trinkets
garnered from vendors
in little tents along alleyways,
in valleys and on beaches
from lands far and near.

One wall holds baskets and gadgets
and things mundane to others,
yet dearly loved by me, colors overlapping into an organized chaos in my graphically prolific imagination.

One wall holds items necessary to living, a knife rack, utensil jar and serving tray, a spice cabinet and hook for fancy towels to dry wet hands and tufted pads for lifting hot things.

One wall holds photo memories
of the life that was lived, babies born, children now parents themselves and flowers long gone, but never forgotten
live on within the wall that is me.

We are so much like
butterflies
Born into a world bursting with
color
Amid a myriad of unknowns and
danger

Little wiggly gooey sort of
larvae
Unprotected and unmolested until we are
not
Held within an unstable housing like
cocoon
Surrounded by vicious predatory type
guardians

Released with untried and underdeveloped
wings
To face a world of beautiful cruelty made to
persevere
Bouncing from life nourishing flower onto
flower
Searching for a sweeter more succulent bit of
drink

Getting scorched by the burning rays of the
sun
Luxuriating in the overwhelming warmth of it’s
power
Following its light all the days of life that are
left
Into the darkness of a winter night never to
return

The wind whispers
in my ear
It’s time

My voice small
and weak replies
I’m not ready

Raindrops drip
from swollen clouds
It’s time

My eyes run with rain
and tears
I’m not ready

The trees bend
lifting me up
It’s time

My fathers hand stretches
down from above
I’m not ready

No more pain he says
I hold his hand –
and go

Very excited to learn my poem Mythical Rain will be published in the Otherworlds issue of Boudin in early September!

Thank you Matthew Campbell and Boudin!

Boudin is a monthly online literary journal produced by the MFA in Creative Writing program at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Known as the “spicy online cousin” of [The McNeese Review] (https://thereview.mcneese.edu/), it publishes fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and hybrid or experimental creative works.

Living here without you
an independent woman
on her own

Smiling at neighbors
as they walk by
hand in hand

Baking cupcakes
for the children
other people’s grands

Tending to flowers
planted as seeds
long ago

Watching the days
slip away into nights
always alone

Loneliness comes
like the waves
of the tide

Ebbing and flowing
a current of emotion
sometimes high often low

An independent woman
independently sleeps each night
independently wakes each and
every morn

I am only as much as I’ll ever be
to you
I am everything that I’ll ever be
for you

You are as much as you will ever be
to me
You are everything that that will never be
for me

We are together for a brief moment
in time
We are not meant to stay together forever
this time

Longing for that connection
with another human being
That unbreakable thread
connecting two hearts

The one that places the other
number one in their lives
It tugs at their souls
keeping them safely entwined

An assurance of care
when no one else is there
A dependence of safety
one who cherishes each tear

Much more than a friend
or a parent or child
A person who chooses
to stay until the end

Reedsy Prompts Campaign has accepted my short story, “The Last Meal” into Reedsy’s Writing Prompts Contest. “The Last Meal” can be read here:

#362 Food for Thought

Drive up the gravel track
welcome home my love
Heaven has returned
the loop of happiness complete

Uncaring of how others judge
I do not tinker in their affairs
Their stream of brutal comments
end in silence within my heart

Bliss remains for hours
that string into days
Until once again your departure
precipitates the bounce of sadness