Melinda Coppola

twenty four may | from the inside out

Melinda Coppola

twenty four may | from the inside out

CAThartic

  “Comes a time, “ said the first cat, when you can decide to be different than you were. You can stop scratching at the window, scheming to find a way to get back OUT THERE. You can stop re-living , over and over in your head, the pleasures and perils of running free, looking […]

Welcome, Winter!

Solstice 2016 On this, the shortest day of the year in my part of the world, I have a confession to make. I’ve been swirling, these darkening days, around and around like a pile of dry autumn leaves. Allowing myself to be picked up by the loudest winds of fear and unrest, carried this way […]

CHASING A CHEESE BALL MOON

December, Massachusetts This time of year in New England, it’s pitch dark at 4:30pm. I’m working on accepting this gracefully, though I do stray from intention a few times a week into cursing-the-darkness mode. Last Wednesday, shortly after the early blackness descended, I was navigating the narrow curves of North Street, wondering if every town, […]

Important Things

  Almost 8 am, a Wednesday on a highway east of where most live, a man slowed his big semi to an almost halt. 8 am attracts the big crowds on a weekday, busy highway east of where most live yet west of work, and they, trafficking in Important Stuff To Do, lit up angry […]

Dear November

    Dear November, It is a month of tributes to poetry, 30 poems in 30 days in some circles. So, being a bit amiss, Miss Construed, I write a letter instead. You are special to me, 11th month, in your own glorious, necrotic, achingly beautiful way. I mean, each page in the book of […]

HOME

The past few days I’ve had home humming in my head and heart. Not my physical dwelling, but rather the whole concept of it: home. It’s a loaded word, to say the least. But I rarely say the least… at least not with pen to paper. Recently, Super Guy and I visited an animal sanctuary. […]

Autism Nation

Autism Nation My same different daughter at twenty three years, is riddled with anxiety and complicated fears Loose beads with holes — they should be on a string! — and thunder and lightening, that power failure they may bring My same different daughter moves mountains each day just to get through the hours, OCD in […]

SORRY

A woman and her young daughter walked by me, heading opposite, on the narrow sidewalk outside the Y this morning. I’m sorry, Older She said in passing as women often do, and though my mouth was silent I wanted with all my heart to say Please don’t apologize for taking up space. If you want […]

Love letter to the morning

Love Letter to the Morning There is much they don’t know. Our history, the ways we cleaved together and then peeled apart. How you went on without me, blithely, and I mourned you even when I didn’t name it. It. The mourning morning, the real morning that happens between 5 and 6am. I deprived myself […]

Yesterday was a Tall Haired Boy

      Bink has the most interesting ways of organizing information. Take the concept of time, for example. Do you know what gender your day was yesterday? Was it long or short haired, or tall haired? I’d venture you’ll say no, and what are you talking about? For you and me, years containing months […]