Balancing Act
Work and life balance
doesn’t march to snap of time clocks.
It slams against your body
in rapid heartbeat problem solving
and four hours of sleep.
It summons up health conditions
that keep you stumbling
over wobbly knees
and blood pressure check ups.
A need to balance
between the wound up nerves
and the unraveling health.
It is an act of holding yourself steady
when the day clamors…
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Antiquated
I gather up my shadow
in the back room of the antique shop.
My fingertips skim over the glassware
leaving a dance pattern
of curiosity.
Fingertips pirouette over ceramic smiles
and marble eyes of childhood vintage moments.
Old lace clings to the shelves,
synthetic cobwebs collecting dust
and I spy daddy long legs
guarding the corners.
I sneeze as yesteryear
tickles at my nose,
and…
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His Favorite Chinese Place
I enjoy the Seattle International District.
Stumble off the train
to count the wooden dragons
clinging to the telephone poles.
Trace the oversized arch with my eyes
then scavenge the electric box designs
kissed with cherry blossoms and neko cats.
I go to the chinese restaurant
I had my last random date.
Sip down green tea
as I remember how the man
compared his elderly mother to a…
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Privacy Notice
My son teaches me
do not disturb
with closed doors
and rolled eyes.
He tells me
he is grown
being a few shakes shy
of eighteen,
and I see him at my hip
with an oversized backpack.
He prepares his future
in cardboard boxes
filled to the brim with framed hugs,
and plastic model events.
Tells me he is ready
for time punches
and his own kitchen.
I make sure he has my…
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Goals
We all set up goals in January and call them resolutions. And studies show, these resolutions tend to be abandoned in a few weeks. So when I talk about goals, I am more looking at habits or challenges that you work to accomplish each year.
I have writing goals like I need to submit to 10 journals and/or contests each month with the exception of the summer, then I do only 5 because I am usually…
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Saturday Prompt 15
Poorly Tuned Guitar
Things that Can Happen
Without Instruction
Sitting Around What Remains
Back of Your Head
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Without Instruction
Pop the eyelids
every morning.
The day unfolds as another
choose your own adventure
minus the guides
and the set plotline.
I get lost by mid-morning
within a tangle of art projects,
chores, and lunch.
Find myself with painted plates
and last week’s laundry as a quilt
by early afternoon.
I keep checking my email
and the mailbox
for the instruction manual
on How to be a Grown…
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Exit Scene
It becomes a movie-
your exit.
A goodbye
from the back of your head.
I watch each strand
of your brown hair
shift into strangers.
The outline of your shoulders
evolved into chalk marking regret
as our love story
becomes a crime story
of discarded keys and crumpled photos.
I whisper I love you
with every footstep credit
until you fade away into the crowd.
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Ten Alternate Endings for the “I Do”
Sign up for every home decor website then create a pinterest board to broadcast picket fences and tiny yellow houses.
We stare at the wedding bands and watch them cinch into handcuffs, and gasp I do over and over again.
We learn to build a rocket so we can dance on the surface of the moon humming our love song.
Learn to pronounce each other’s names properly.
We provide progress report…
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One Final Supper
I place a setting at the table
for each of my ghosts.
One final supper
in candlelight.
We share cups full of hellos
and goodbyes.
I nibble on the syllables of their names
and sip up their shadows.
We sing in laughter
as the clock chimes in the morning hours.
I stand up to move to the door
while they remain seated
looking at their clasped hands.
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Campus Symphony
The campus square
filled up with reed bodies
and tuba mouths.
The students cluttered the commons
with classroom ballads, cafeteria hymns,
and mocktail symphonies.
Sound clangs together from bass strummed lips
and echoes over the courtyard
into a concert of youth and indecision.
The rhythmic banter
of poor choices
and fine tuned leaps of faith.
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Soundtrack Check again
So what music am I listening to these days? Here are my top 15 songs right now.
Clarity by Zedd ft. Foxes
I Wanna Go Back by Eddie Money
Psycho by Rozzi Crane
Light On by Maggie Rogers
Lost Without You by Freya Ridings
My Enemy by Night Club
Another White Line by Butterfly Boucher
She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult
Big Bad Wolf by In This Moment
Let It Go by James Bay
We Didn’t Start The…
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Saturday Prompt 14
Bad Math
These Are Words
Sea Drenched Reminder
Arguing Below the Eyebrow
Furiously Backpedal
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Saltwater Heartbreak
The ocean rests in my eyes.
Waves of tears shift
over my cheeks
and rest in salt kissed lullabies.
I sing my goodbyes
with seagull wings
and send off my fractured heart
in seaweed-wrapped boxes.
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Spin Doctor
The campaign manager
listened for the politician’s soundbites,
stirring her coffee
counterclockwise to pull
his voice around her thumb.
Pushing his words
around and around her spoon,
she tried to make his intentions positive.
Spent the morning breaking verbs
and crushing nouns
until she ground it down
to an apology to improve his rating.
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The Equation of Speed Dating
The number of drink stirrers
of my cocktail speed dating
doesn’t equal
the red flags in rapid fire smiles.
I check off pros and cons
like tic tac toe and I never find
a straight line to a great date.
The players move seat from seat
and the crumpled date cards
overflow into whiskey shots.
Love is a bad equation
and variables change each bell clang,
leaving me the only thing
that…
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Peace Treaty Silence
He approaches with passive aggressive fists
and uses calm tones to jab at me.
Throws out his emotions
to block any understanding,
and I feel myself collapsing
into the villain of this story.
My heart becomes an armory of scrap metal explosives,
and my whiplash tongue thunders out
my casualty understanding.
my voice is a battlefield
squealing out sirens,
falling dead before he can…
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