NaPoWriMo 14

Sunday

My Sunday feeling comin' up over me
the record player skips in my head
from many long Sundays ago 
with someone else's music collection
and hi-fi 
borrowing their taste
making it my own
My Sunday feeling comin' up over me
as I drag myself from room to room
moving things to their right places
until I'm bored with it 
and the baby starts to fuss,
mercifully,
I recollect the album covers' smell
just like library books
but with a hint of something else
coffee or pot or a slightly more heinous strain of mildew
I hum the line
and can't remember the rest
just a hint of a riff
I hum relentlessly,
thoughtlessly
driving my husband mad
He starts singing Manic Monday
but doesn't know the whole song
and makes it up as he goes
My Sunday feeling comin' up over me

NaPoWriMo 13

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a poem after taking a walk.


A Cruise Through Wal-Mart with Crying Baby

the cart is mostly full of baby and baby carrier
but groceries rest near him,
his arms not yet long enough to grab the raw chicken or the rattling box of noodles
I stroke his cheek as his dad pushes the cart more quickly than I can walk
and I fall behind
mother who can't quiet the baby 
and who by casual observation
doesn't need to be out during flu season
tut-tut
when she should be at home
doing nurturing things
with the upset baby
who loudly, red-faced, refuses the pacifier
I catch a brick of washcloths (on sale for two dollars)
with the corner of the overstuffed diaper bag
amateur hour, I think to myself, sighing
and since no one saw I let it land with a flump on the floor
and don't even feel bad about not picking it up
not much, anyway
"Let's get the hell out of here," I mutter 
"You can come back without us for the rest."
Again.
we go home singing silly songs to the poor inconsolable babe
who hates the carseat
and Walmart
understandably

NaPoWriMo 12

Another haiku for a busy yesterday

The Harbinger, Too Early

eight inches of fluff

fat robins wait noisily

chilly orange glory 

NaPoWriMo 11

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt:

Today I challenge you to write a tanka. This, like the “American” cinquain, is a poem based on syllables, with the pattern being 5-7-5-7-7. 

Rate This Title

Snow falls in April
and I, in my yoga pants,
glare at the shovel.
And refuse to make a path.
This is why Netflix exists.

NaPoWriMo 10

Just something simple for the 10th using the NaPoWriMo prompt.

Love for Taxes

It's not that I don't appreciate the roads and liberations
the pretty new nickels, the plastic pennies
but after all the questions are answered
circles filled in
rates calculated
papers gathered
and thumping head pain endured
could you at least send a small cookie?

Goose Leash

The following is for VisDare #14. It's 128 words, edited lightly from not much more than that. I wasn't feeling the story this photo was telling me today, which is odd because I absolutely love the photo. Enjoy.

Goose Leash

By the light of small kerosene lamp, she carefully hand-hemmed a small triangle of brown and grey tweed and glanced down at him from her rocker. "You won't stray again, Henry. I'm making sure of that." 

The white goose opened his bill and hissed disdain. His black eyes darted around the room as if he was trying to locate an exit.

"No reason you can't still be nicely dressed, though," she said with a positive but stern tone. She smiled. "And calm down, darling. You don't have hands. There's no way you're getting a door open. Best to relax." She giggled, the lamplight sparkling in her glasses, "Silly goose."

Fellow VisDare-ers, look me up on Twitter @gardenofedits for grammar, style, and baby tweets as well as my little fictions and poems.

NaPoWriMo 9

I have to fight the angry, red-faced person in my head who's loudly whining, "Don't hit publish! It's awful and it's under-developed and it's not done and it's just... bad!" But, that's not the spirit of NaPoWriMo.So. 

Omissions

so many things They don't tell you
in the little cards that come with flowers,
on the tummies of teddies,
or in the comforting, moldy pages of a borrowed book 
about the aches and gore
about the neverending where the hell did this come from?
this distraction from inside out
realizing your name is everyone else's name too
you find deficiencies
inabilities to be mended
knowledge to be appended
every room upended
and the time you would have used to give a crap 
is better spent taking a nap
years of clothing and not a damn thing to get dressed in
unseen abilities manifesting
like finding out how many things you can do 
while peeing
--it's surprising and impressive--
but 
better left untweeted
you just have to be there
to know