(She is) Unbroken
Unbroken There were times I imagined you different. My young mother mind pictured you— normal, typical, non-disabled. I can’t use those words anymore for their opposites evoke— lack, absence, tragedy, and you, my child, are a celebration of plenty, a bounty of delight, a well of fascination. In fact, you stand against the backdrop of […]
First Digit Singular
This Is What Really Happened Trigger warnings: Run-on sentences. Querulousness. Thirteen days ago I had my thumb joint reconstructed. This was elective and a long time coming—both carpo-metacarpals whittled down to bone on bone, naked osseous matter grinding boorishly against its equally unclothed neighbor, hyaline cartilage having fled years ago. I chose the off […]
The Life Cycle of a Day
Bink and I walk outside a lot. We are blessed with a number of parks and nature sanctuaries in our area, and we know some of them quite well. This poem stemmed from a particular ramble early last spring. I’m pleased that Willows Wept Review chose to publish it in their fall issue. The […]
BE EVER SO KIND
In my nearly 30 year journey parenting my child with special needs, I’ve had much time to reflect on the juxtaposition between How I Thought Things Would Go and How Things Have Gone. How Things Are. I revisit memories of child-me, teen-me, very-young-adult me, and wonder—what if she knew how things would unfold? What might […]
The Visitor
In the dark, a baby fox hoists her short legs one by trembling one up the steep stairs, tripping the sensor light as she reaches the back deck in a sharp-eyed heap of gray brown fur. She toddles, adorably unsteady, across the width of composite boards, circles metal table and chairs, small nose searching […]
Hello Out There
Hello, As a very part-time Yoga teacher (and former studio owner), I maintain a separate email communication list for my students. There is a little bit of cross-over; a handful of my students (or former students) also subscribe to this blog. I’ve never sent the same email to both lists, until now. The writing has […]
What’s in a name? More pub cred, musings
Mid-April already? Time is such a liquid concept. Today, my already may be your finally. It is already April? Finally, it is spring. In February, my finally was louder than my already. Finally, Winter has lifted the frayed ends of her long gray coat and begun her drawn-out egress. I’ve had two more poems published, […]
AUTISM AWARENESS DAY Redux
I’m re-posting this poem in recognition of “World Autism Awareness Day.” As D, a sister mom from my autism tribe, has said, ” We are aware. We are very aware.” Autism Awareness month is April, World Autism Awareness Day, April 2 and, in case the day lacks color, (as if any day with Autism […]
Folliculi, Follicula
TEND and SAVOR “Why the hair is attached to the head it will not come out please respond to me in a video.” These were the first words Bink communicated to me today, shortly after she got up. I’ve answered this question—one of about six in the current sequence that makes up part of my […]
Integration
It has been almost a month since my mother passed. It wasn’t unexpected. She was old and ill and tired. She wanted to go, was impatient with the way those final months seemed to drag and throw more miseries her way. I was able to mark 60 of my birthdays with her still in the […]