My heart’s wound is an old old story /
It chatters in the background day and night . . .
I am from cotton hand-me-downs, hemmed to fit, / From Carnation powdered milk / And big biscuit Nabisco Shredded Wheat. / From racing and yelling, “I’LL GET IT!” / Whenever the black rotary phone rang…
Feather on the Breath of God
tiny feather, downy white
tucked under the wing
of mother dove
close to her breast
near to her heart
warm and safe
hidden, obscured . . .
Let us remember and lay to rest
a creature so compliant
that she took the rules
and swallowed them whole
creating her own iron maiden
One of the stranger stories of the Bible is about Jacob wrestling with an angel. Apparently, this patriarch spent all night wrestling with an angel, saying, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” . . .
Dreams can be so weird. Other times so meaningful. And occasionally, both at the same time . . .
In the dark stillness comes a chirp, a trill
And in the background always the low rumble and growl of the city
The sky gently lightens to misty aqua over glowing gold . . .
When I was a girl
I found a stray kitten
Feral and frightened
it ran and hid
and would not come
to my kitty-kitty calls . . .
from leaf tip
a single shining orb
rushes down towards
its twin rushing up
to merge and disappear
in still water . . .
Posted on July 11, 2020
What happens when a Dutiful Daughter grows up and gets married? If she has 1) internalized her strict upbringing, 2) through hardship had the playfulness wrung out of her, 3) learned to avoid criticism by suppressing her true feelings, ideas and opinions when necessary, and 4) converted to evangelicalism as a young teen, there’s really one obvious path for her: become a minister’s wife. So that’s what I did.