The pain of remembering
Sunlight filtered through the high oak leaves, where summer stretched out long and bright, we scrambled up the mossy bark and reached until we touched the light. Hand over hand, my sister led, no branch too tall, no sky too wide, with scraped-up knees and breathless laughs, and all the universe inside.
Down in the yard, the cool blue pool waited to catch our cannonballs, a splash that sent the morning free beyond the wooden garden walls. We raced across the surface tension, underwater, eyes open wide, a pod of dolphins bound together by the pull of the shifting tide.
When shadows grew across the grass, the yard became a battleground, for hide-and-seek and Tag you're it, and every secret spot we found. We ran until our lungs were fire, until the porch light flickered on, collecting moments in our hands before the golden day was gone.
Now time moves fast and miles stretch out, but locked inside the heart remains the echo of those summer shouts, the quiet after summer rains. A tangled web of laughing voices, a fortress built of grass and sun— the gentle weight of growing up together, bound as more than one.
We are not that young anymore.
Wild, fierce inferno claims the ancient scrub,
Gossamer smoke hides the canopy,
Burning heat sweeps across the earth,
Blackened vault cracks in the blaze,
Red, hissing sparks ignite,
Blistered ironbark,
Forest of grey,
Scorched timber,
Silence,
Ash.
Rain.
Seeds burst,
Water pools,
Fresh leaves stretch out,
Wattle starts to bloom,
Susurrous bush awakes,
Fragrant petrichor ascends,
Harbinger of a vibrant spring,
Paperbarks becoming bathed in gold,
Effervescent rains wash the eucalypt.
Rumple Stein has a terrifying
midnight warning for children
who look for a late- night snack.
Deep within the woods
where the old shadows grow,
Rumple Stein whispers a secret
you must know.
"Never sneak a cookie when
the midnight bell tolls,
For that is the hour when the
beast truly strolls."
His voice is like gravel, his
eyes gleam with spite,
Warning little children of the
terrors in the night.
"The Cookie Monster waits in
the dark, cold and grim,
If you steal a treat, you will
surely meet him."
A shadow will stretch out
across the kitchen floor,
As a blue furry claw softly
pushes the door.
He won't want a wafer, a chip,
or a chew,
Instead, the fierce beast will
come hunting for you!
Your bones will be crumbled
like a dry chocolate chip,
As he catches your sleeve in
his terrible grip.
With a terrifying growl from his
bottomless cup,
The hungry blue gobbler will
swallow you up!
So lock up the cookie jar when the
clock strikes the hour,
Before you are trapped in the
monster's grim power.
No crumbs will remain where
you stood on the floor,
And the kitchen will stay silent
forevermore.
I won't shrink. I'll take a stand,
and stretch out like a rubber band.
I won't give up. I'll right this ship,
and keep it together like a paper clip.
A poem is easy for a heart that's stout -
I just need some Bic Wite-Out.
5/11/26 6:21 PM
In my bed windows open
Cool air filled the room
Rustling trees and sad country songs
I sat alone in the dark consumed by the songs you taught me to love
Hearing your voice in each line
Smelling your cologne in each guitar strum
Feeling your arms around me
With each drumbeat echoing through the dead night
I feel the pain of each heartstring stretch out to you then
Snap.
I cave and crawl back to you like an addict to her vice
I wish my addiction was something simple, a bottle, a powder,
something that doesn’t kiss your neck
then pretend not to see you in the hallway
I read the final messages you sent
Hoping i'd remember how my heart bent
But even through the fire the thought of you was ice cooling me
You made me cry and I still wanted you
You're the medicine I need but also the one killing me
I’m told you’re not good for me,
but my body and mind crave you anyway
And I looked at you with bedroom eyes, hoping you wouldn’t see the tears
and would want me back
even for a night
But I never win that fight
Spacious arms stretch out
twirling massive weight in air
energy lifted
Don’t be so hard on yourself, my friend..
Life’s too short to twist and bend.
The world will whirl with noise and fuss..
But not every storm belongs to us.
Let worries drift like passing breeze..
Unclench your jaw, drop your keys.
The sky won’t fall if you just pause..
And take a break from all its cause.
Kick off your shoes, stretch out your toes..
Let calm return in quiet flows.
No need to chase each shout or scoff..
Sit back a while.. just wander off.
The dramas shout, then fade away..
They’re loud at night, but gone by day.
So sip your tea and breathe in slow..
Let gentle moments steal the show.
Be kind to you.. give peace a chance..
Life’s not a race, but more a dance.
So put your feet up, rest your mind..
And leave the heavy world behind.
To be a fly for a day
And exist far away
To land in the past
When pictures were gray
To see life in color
Hues vivid and bold
See my young mother
Before life made her old
Smell her brown hair
Draped as she lay
Then watch her stretch out
Prepare for the day
The light in her eyes
And spring in her step
Before life made her gray
And youthfulness left
Rapid wings blurring
As I’d trail her to school
Watching her giggles
Near by on a stool
Then by the lockers
I’d peek at her notes
Did she doodle in class
Make lots of jokes
Or was she concerned
Only of grades
Not the class clown
But, teacher’s aide
Did she hide out and smoke
Bell bottoms and braids
Then sneak back in class
Receiving all A’s
What were her dreams
Just being a mother
Or other ambitions
Her children would smother
She stayed home to raise kids
Did everything right
It seems we grew up
Just overnight
Her purpose seems gone
Now that we’re grown
She’s fighting depression
And being alone
If I could go back
And steer her away
From marriage and kids
A fly, I would stay
I see a spate of branching paths
before me in the woods,
do not have time to take them all,
so wonder which I should?
Being cursed with real wanderlust,
I feel the dread in me,
if I choose one, not the others,
what thing will I not see?
Will this one reach a waterfall,
mossy rock in a glen?
Will that one reach a twisting gorge
that I’ll not see again?
Does that one go up to a ridge
where long vistas stretch out?
Does this one go down to a lake,
with frogs hopping about?
Or do they present false choices,
going nowhere unique,
just more of the same forest grounds
with nothing great to seek.
But could I live with the regret
if I missed something grand?
Or do I waste precious hours
just roaming normal lands?
I know the choice that many make,
and yet, I still must go;
I guess I’m wired to explore,
and my soul needs to know…
The sun peeps over the horizon,
after a long abstinence,
its rays flare skyward,
parting the cloud-curtains
staining them in red, orange, amber, gold
changing rapidly
shifting, blinking, throbbing
with each blink of the eye.
Half-up, a search-beam of light stretches
across the ocean towards you
parting the darkness to let radiance pour in
filling the scene with warm dawn glow
Day all but gone now
I linger still, a little longer, watching,
as shadows stretch out long and limber
threading the scene with sunset-spools,
rewinding through the thinning light,
the strings of red, orange, amber, gold,
clinging to every breath, drawn out slow,
holding on to the moment,
unwilling to let the day
pass and go.
We are in a new Guilded Age
Sucking the teats of the ultra-rich and powerful
Holding our breath
To ensure we survive
While the elites get their spaceship
The rest of us get cheap makeup
Biding our time
To hopefully survive
Demigods with cattle prods
Keep us all in line
Silence the public voice
So megalomaniacs get enshrined
Battle-bruised hands stretch out
Only to be removed in zip-ties
Your questions will be ignored
answers bathed in our frigid lies
how great is the grace of the ones we love
we would stretch out time to be with them a second more
we will never sink to low or float to far above
with them, the flow of love we have to pour
I stand on foundations as hard as stone
I venture the cosmos and with their love I'm not alone
all pain to the end of time can be thrown
with love and faith as the thread, grace can be sewn
when the end of all is finally here
when some may collapse under the weight of fear
when the path of love and grace has been laid through the years
only joy and peace will fill my last tears
I stand on foundations as hard as stone
I venture the cosmos and with their love I'm not alone
all pain to the end of time can be thrown
with love and faith as the thread, grace can be sewn
they will have my heart to do with as they will
ill focus my thoughts as time seems to stand still
this journey was tough i couldn't tell
backed by family and honor its as all is well
I stand on foundations as hard as stone
I venture the cosmos and with their love I'm not alone
all pain to the end of time can be thrown
with love and faith as the thread, grace can be sewn
The years stretch out behind me
rapidly dwindle ahead
Memory lane’s an expressway
in front, the future’s bled
Long shadows of dawn
may stretch out ahead of you;
by dusk, behind you.
I am a pine cone tree in the Evergreen state of Washington
My lower branches hang downward, that slap the unwary with pine needles, pine cones, and a hidden —squirrel
The mid branches stretch out for birds to congregate for their nesting
While the upper branches in its smaller gamut reach for the sun
We rally together in the face of windstorms
Albeit, we stand helpless as our forgiving aged remnants tend beneath our girth as the drying summer —heat threatens us
The beast's droppings enrich our soil
Rainwater nourishes us for the furtherance
We exalt in the sands' host of its endless pour through time
And revel in the promise of our pine cone familial forest, assuring our survival's worth
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