By Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris

Weeks and weeks of tortuous aloneness exacerbated by Christmas and New Years Eve holiday celebrations going on all around – me

Waiting for that text that email that call that says you are thinking of me you miss me you are coming to see me – soon

Christmas passes without a glance back to see who might be waiting New Year’s Eve approaches anticipation builds excitement that the drought will soon – break

The tree is up and decorated a week past gift opening day Ready for you are prettily wrapped packages Beneath a beaming Christmas tree giddy with – excitement

The home is adorned pictures hung against bare walls Floors are swept Curtain bottoms dance across a polished floor practicing for that first dance with – you

The smart device signals with a ping a text, an email, a call Plans have changed you may or may not come Another opportunity as arisen for you Taking you from me – again

By Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris

In response to Tuesday Writing Prompt Challenge – December 28, 2021 by DEVEREAUX FRAZIER and BETH AMANDA – Today’s prompt: Use “my sins beyond” in any form of writing.

https://godoggocafe.com/2021/12/28/tuesday-writing-prompt-challenge-december-28-2021/

You took our child support! You stole our inheritance! You cheated on our father! You! You! You!

Constantly and forever accused of sins beyond my imagining. What children have I wrought upon this world accusing me?

I give them freedom, they perceive neglect! I turn the other cheek, they perceive weakness and fear!

Be strong in your own minds I say, they believe me stupid and ignorant. Be of your own opinions I teach, they believe me deaf and blind.

In my heart I am pure, and good and kind and loving. I thrust my sins beyond the kin of humanity, into His arms only.

Christmas Tithe – 99 Words

31 December 2021

By Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris

“I’m telling you, she’s a witch!” Said the boy carrying the end of the tree.

“She’s not a witch!” Chimed the other two boys.

“She’s just an old woman.” The first boy said.

“Besides,” the middle boy huffed, “a witch wouldn’t want a Christmas tree every year!”

“Momma says it’s a tithe to keep her happy,” the third boy whispered.

The old lady beckoned them in where they set the tree in its stand. She led them out and as the door closed they heard her laughingly say,

“I am not a witch love, not a witch at all.”

FLASH FICTION FOR THE PURPOSEFUL PRACTITIONER: 2022: WEEK #01

https://flashfictionforthepracticalpractitioner.wordpress.com/

Posted on December 27, 2021 by rogershipp

Mother

By Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher-Ferris

She told us, she warned us repeatedly through story, through song and finally, she showed us. Even with the showing, we did not listen. Even when chaos reigned down on us from above, when fiery rockets of molten lava spewed from below, when oceans rose and deserts disappeared; still we did not listen. We forced her hand and being who she is, she could not, would not back down.

We became the enemy. We became the infestation. We who had been given this paradise of greenery, of sustenance, of life; repeated our own history without garnering one single learned moment from the eons and eons of quiet pleas, the unheard cries, the high decibel screams she issued. The animals could hear, the flowers and the plants could hear, the mountains, the seas, the deserts and the trees could hear. But we could not hear. We did not hear. We would not hear. Some did. Some heard and tried to rally around the trees, the oceans, the deserts and the flowers; but they weren’t enough or they too, were too late.

Response to Sadje’s Sunday Poser #60 – “How was your Christmas Day?”

http://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2021/12/26/sunday-poser-60/

No Christmas 

by Ami (Gypsie) Offenbacher -Ferris

Christmas forgot me this year

No tree no lights

No gifts to wrap 

No presents to unwrap 

Sitting beneath the stars 

The night cold 

The darkness endless 

The void calls my name 

Voice deep in my heart 

A memory of childhood delight

A sense of Christmases past

A past time of jubilant excitement 

Loved ones from heights above 

Touch my mind

Touch memories lost

Touch heartache forever sustained 

The peace of Christmas 

Lay in the stars

Lay on the Earth

Lay in my heart

Christmas forgot me this year

I do not need a tree

I do not need to wrap presents

I do not need gifts to unwrap

Christmas – I will never forget You 

Twisted dagger into my heart
jagged edges rip my soul

Din of darkness threatens within
exhaustion crushes from without

To join in Melanie’s Share Your World, just click here
SHARE YOUR WORLD QUESTIONS

1. What is your least favorite holiday side dish? (for any holiday)
   Cranberry sauce
2. What is the ugliest or most tasteless decoration you’ve ever seen?
   Skeleton Santa and elves. Ewwhh!
3. What is a cherished or unusual (either or both) family tradition from your childhood?
   Mother always placed two full boxes of silver tinsel on the tree after Dad had strung the lights and we had hung the ornaments. She would hang each strand one at a time perfectly over each branch, starting at the top all the way to the bottom. It was the only time she didn’t have a cigarette in her hand.
4. You’re walking down the street, feeling great — what holiday song would be playing in the background? Mannheim Steamroller’s Carol of the Bells

Response to Bartholomew Barker’s Monday three word prompt Dark, Frost, Long. https://livingpoetry.net/2021/12/20/monday-poetry-prompt-dark-frost-long/

Cold dark nights

Eternity covered in biting frost

Trees long on earth sag

beneath the weight

Frigid wind cuts through limbs

aged and brittle

New growth has ceased

decay creeps ever upward

Barren branches creak

the ground shakes

A massive limb breaks free

thundering to the ground

The forest rejoices

a limb to feed the soil

The trees weep

another ancient is dying

Roots dry and shatter

beneath the frozen ground

making room for seedlings

The cycle of life continues

Response to prompt from GirlieOnTheEdge via Keith’s Ramblings where the given word is Junk.

GirlieOnTheEdge – https://girlieontheedge1.wordpress.com Keith’s Ramblings – https://keithsramblings.net/

She could not believe they were talking about her junk like that when she’d worked for years building it up, until finally it had become a beautiful work of art, at least to her.

Continuing down the long alleyway towards her home was probably a mistake but, she had finished long ago letting other people’s opinions affect her mood, her outlook on life and most importantly, her heart.

Passing yet another building gone defunct, being resurrected from the filth and ashes it had become victim to by those hippie preppie do-gooders who knew nothing about her city, her people and certainly not her culture; she ignored the rude cat calls and lewd innuendoes spit down from a height of the building she would never see the inside of.

The guys whistled as she sashayed past, her firm, full ass rivaled only by her voluminous chest bouncing wildly while she ambled her way home carrying her new treasure, thinking they only wish they could get their hands on her junk before she could cross the railroad tracks to get home exhausted, trying to keep those guys from overstepping and touching her junk inappropriately.

Placing the newly acquired, rusty bike fender in her garden took some time because everything had its place in her world, then she found the perfect spot beside the mangled, front tire of that bicycle she’d found laying in the snow last winter, she stood relishing the beauty of the junk that was just hers before slipping beneath the curtain of the cardboard box she called home.

Inside her little home she slid beneath the warmth of those woolen blankets the nice lady from the church had given her, not remembering her name or what church she came from but thankful for her blessings, none-the-less.

Thanks to Bartholomew Barker for the unintentional prompt!

bartbarkerpoet.com/2021/12/17/fraiku-tinnitus/#like-4923

Hot pitchfork speared through skin and spine, invisible, irremovable.