Elegy for Robin [POETRY]

Oh, Robin, dear Robin, you made wishes come true

Though we never knew not what to expect of you

You could drink through your finger and sit on your head

Become a child again and jump on your bed

Whether you’re bionic or just the greatest dad

Losing you made so many hearts sad

We wish we knew what hid behind that smile

We would have fought to keep you for a little while

But you chose to move on and we hope you still know

That love and laughter follow everywhere you go

Today's challenge was to write an elegy. 

I got sidetracked and then my theme made me sad. 

Nano nano :(

Hope it is worth your consideration.

Follow Me Down [POETRY]

Follow me down to the depths of my soul

See the product of the dice you roll

Twist me up in a blue-lined sheet

And guide me toward those I should meet

Before I venture out into a world of wonders

And realize the consequence of the smallest blunders

As the world around me floods, lightning strikes

Illuminating a dozen heads on pikes 

About the keep of the castle fair

But it is too late to wish myself elsewhere 

As the drawbridge lowers and I am drawn forward

Knowing not what danger I walk toward

As a familiar voice echoes from all around

Inviting so sweetly, “Follow me down…”

Consumed [POETRY]

Consumed, swallowed up

And dispersed across the stars

On my own tears I sup

To think of what is ours

Just one twinkle, just one

Of a million glowing stars

To warm us until we are done 

Weeping for what could have been

While what is waits for us to see

That there will be joy again

Shining down on you and me

Got a prompt and may have twisted it a little bit. Hope you like it.

Look And See [POETRY]

The whole world screams, “Look at me”

Yet no one looks, no one can see

How precious each one has always been

Whether we know them or call them friend

So take a breath, close your eyes

Think once more, listen for those cries

You cannot hear with physical ears

And watch for signs of unseen tears

We are born to love, all, not one

And we must admit our day is not done

Until we show love even if only by bowing our heads

As we kneel reverently by our beds

And petition for those we may not know

So the love inside us can blossom and grow

Sorry, kids, it is poetry month. I think we might all need a little healing poetry in our souls right now. Hope you and your loved ones are well and safe...

and not driving each other TOO crazy.

Seeing Through Myself [FICTION]

My eyes fly open but heavy eyelids quickly race back toward each other. I force them open only to find them blocking out the light a moment later. I listen to the soft sounds of the night. Nothing unusual strikes my eardrums. I reach for my phone, which resides on my bedside table. Instead of bumping against it, my hand passes through the plastic and metal box and then through the oaken table beneath it. I pause with my hand buried in the whirls of wood. Puzzled I raise my hand to my face. The dim glow of my night light shines through my now translucent appendage. I blink. Everything disappears.

I open my eyes and look toward my hand again. My arm now appears to end at the elbow. Every now and then my fingers flicker into visibility followed by my wrist before both fade to nothingness.

“Oh no.” I whisper, raising my other hand to my mouth.

Reassured by the feel of my hand pressed to my lips, I glance down at my feet. A quick survey confirms that the rest of my anatomy remains solid. Only my right hand, my dominant hand, seems to be affected.

“The experiment worked!” I exclaim.

My excitement only lasts as long as it takes me to rush to the door to share my findings with my sister. My hand slides through the doorknob. My arm bumps the door and my hand returns to its solid state. I scream. A fiery pain rips through my lower arm, as if some unseen force ripped it from my body. I whimper.

I am still whimpering when my sister comes out of her room, rubbing her eyes. “Are you okay?”

I bite my lip to hold back the soft keening sound and shake my head. I gesture with my left hand.

She raises both hands to her face to cover her gaping mouth. “It worked. Our experiment worked.”

“Not quite the way we hoped,” I add.

Her eyes widen as she takes a closer look, “Is your arm stuck in the door?”

I nod my head, afraid to risk letting the smallest sound escape my lips because screams of anguish might follow.

She casually reaches into the pocket of her robe and pulls out a plastic tube with a needle inside. “If we can get you free, we can test the cure?”

“You have that on you?”

She shrugs, “I should have been a Boy Scout.”

As she finishes speaking, she lunges forward and pulls on my trapped arm. I scream preemptively, only stopping when it finally registers that the pain subsided sometime during our brief exchange.

“Saw your arm playing misty for me and figured I should free you so I could do this.” She jabbed the needle into my arm.

This time, I manage to bite back my scream. Only a light squeal slips past my lips. She has administered enough shots to find my veins with ease. I ponder my lack of worry at this fact for a moment. Then she takes my solid hand in both of hers. I look to her face, but her eyes remain focused on my disappearing appendage.

I turn my eyes in the same direction. As my hand returns to normal, I place it over hers, squeezing tightly. Her smile turns to an impish grin as she meets my eyes.

“Now that we know the experiment works, what will we do with the serum?”

I smile back. “Whatever we want.”

Friday the Thirteenth asked for a celebration. I hope this helped divert your minds from men in old school hockey masks...unless he snuck up behind you while you were reading...in which case, my bad.

Lonely No More [FICTION]

“Wait up. Wait up.” A voice calls after me.

I turn toward it. A smile tugs the corners of my mouth as a man approaches. A shock of white hair waves wildly around the bald spot on his head. Fluorescent green suspenders hold up drab brown pants, standing out against the white of his button down shirt. Surprisingly shorter than me, he reaches up one gnarled hand to show me a tiny bottle with an amber liquid glowing inside.

“I see all. I know all. I cure all.” He smiles as he shakes the bottle before my eyes.

“Uh-huh.” I offer noncommittally as I turn away from him.

He moves to block my path. “You don’t know what you need until you find it.”

“I have everything I need.” I find myself reflexively clutching my purse closer to my chest.

“I don’t steal, miss.” His eyes narrow as he looks up and lowers his arm. “Maybe you don’t want the cure for your loneliness after all.”

My eyes widen. “How do…?”

He smiles at my confusion. “The cure to loneliness is in this bottle. I promise.”

My mystification over his ability to peer into my soul wavers and I step away.

“Come now. Come now. It costs you nothing.” He coaxes as he holds out the bottle to me.

Without conscious thought, I find myself touching the bottle with one finger. Where my skin warms the glass, the amber liquid bubbles up into a nugget of gold. I gasp, enthralled.

“It’s all yours.” He grins and places the vial into my hand.

With my whole hand warming it, the liquid morphs to liquid gold. “But I…” I can’t find the words to deny this gift, so I wrap my fingers around it.

I swear it dances inside my palm. The man smiles at me as he runs a hand through thinning grey hair. He produces a card with the other. “Just in case you have any other ails that need cured.”

I take the card, watching him walk away before I open my palm again. Gold gleams back at me, promising the end to lonely days and nights. I look up again, but the man has disappeared. I wonder if he has a potion for that, too.

I stare at the bottle. The golden glow becomes more inviting the more I observe it. I lick my lips. I try hiding it in my hand but still feel it calling from behind my fingers.

At last, I open the bottle. I hold it under my nose. Hints of honey and lime rise from the narrow opening. I put it to my lips and a warm feeling follows the liquid down into my stomach. Traces of sweet honey lime revisit my tongue as a prodigious number of burps well up from inside me.

The burping subsides. I take in a deep breath. As I do so, a hand takes mine. I look down to find a little girl smiling up at me.

“Want to hear a joke?”

I blink, wondering briefly where she came from before replying. “Of course.”

She smiles and proceeds to tell jokes for fifteen minutes before I realize I have an appointment. “Sorry, honey, I have to go.”

At the conclusion of my appointment, I resign myself to another lonely ride on the bus. As I fish around in my bag for the cheap novel I bough to keep me company, an older woman takes the seat beside.

“Hello, dear.” She smiles. “Do you mind if I talk to you? Sometimes I get so lonely.”

I incline my head, pondering the efficacy of the golden potion as I reply. “I know the feeling.”

With pleasant conversation slowly coming to a close, I bid her adieu, echoing her hope that we will be on the same bus again soon.

As I open the door to my house, I switch on every light in my path. The light always dispels the loneliness. I grab a soda from the fridge and step into the hall. A photograph hanging there catches my eye. I stop to stare. My mouth drops open.

“I don’t believe it.”

Staring back at me from a photo of four generations of my family is my own childish grin, which I now recognize as the same one my joke-telling friend flashed at me so many times right after I drank the potion. On the other side of my mother, with a wrinkled hand affectionately resting on her shoulder is my grandmother. Her face looks a lot like my new friend from the bus.

“Is it possible?” I wonder aloud, looking down to find the mad scientist’s card in my hand.

I glance at it, but shake my head. It can’t be possible.

Happy Halloween! 'Tis the Season to be a little disturbed. Did it work?

Eleventh Rabbit Hole [FICTION]

“Come on, Bunny. Eighteen holes and we raise enough money to fund the children’s wing for another year.” Maria smiled as she waved the flyer under my nose.

“But I’m terrible.”

“People pledge support for you to finish a hole not have a low score.”

“It might be better if they gave me a dollar for every stroke I take.”

“Bunny, most of our friends can’t afford to pledge hundreds of dollars.”

We laughed, but I still found myself at the golf course three weeks later. With seven terribly long holes to go, I sliced and sent my ball careening into the nearby woods. I sighed and followed it. As I scanned the ground further in the forest, the ground cover thinned out. With no hint of white to be seen, I turned back to find a fluffy white rabbit gazing up at me. He stood up on his back paws, twitched his nose and peered into my eyes.

“Follow me.” He said and turned toward a hole in the trunk of an ancient tree.

“Didn’t someone already write this story?” I asked his fluffy cottontail as the rest of him disappeared into the dark recesses of the hole, but curiosity compelled me forward.

I squealed as I placed one foot into the hole and found myself sliding downward into the darkness. I plopped to a stop in a soft pile of what I hoped was dried leaves. I pushed myself up and stood slowly, surprised not to bash my head into tree roots. I blinked in hopes of dispelling the darkness.

“She’s here. She’s here.” Voices from a high shrill squeal to a deep low bass echoed around me, amplified by the darkness.

I inhaled deeply. I forgot to exhale as I a hush fell. My hand rose to cover my heart, which thudded anxiously. 

“She IS here.” A deep voice whispered in my ear as something furry brushed against my face.

I shuddered and let out a ragged breath.

“She’s cold.” The voice rose above a whisper and a soft weight lowered itself to my shoulder.

I jumped.

Thump.

“Light the fire.” The voice called out from somewhere around my feet.

I screamed. Hundreds of warm bodies pressed up against me as I sank to the floor again. I suppressed the next scream but still felt it tickling the back of my throat.

Bright light erupted to my left. I looked toward it, but my eyes closed against the brightness. I opened them slowly, biting my lip as the world around me came into view. A small fire leapt up from a rough teepee of wood at the heart of a fire pit of rough stones. A cavern disappeared in darkness far above my head.

Hundreds of dark shapes crowded around me. Round heads with long ears bobbing as they turned their heads this way and that to get a better look at me. As my eyes adjusted to the light, little bunny faces appeared, mouths ajar to reveal long teeth amidst fluffy cheeks. Dark eyes blinked curiously. 

The deep voice echoes again as a tiny form made his way back to my shoulder. “Bunny, we have been waiting for you.” He regarded me expectantly.

I licked my parched lips, surprised to find that my scream had dissipated.

“You are so glad you have finally come to be with us.” He intoned.

I shrieked and the bunnies laughed. Then they imitated the sound of my shriek as they crowded closer. Despite the warmth of so many tiny, fuzzy bodies, I shivered.

Sometimes it is scary to belong…

Trick or Treat. Feel free to thank me in the comments.