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A Flickering

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at 4:37 I heard

scrambling of paw

on wood floor

ticky-toe hurried

steps toward

the bedroom door

next the whining,

different from normal

pleas, like someone

stepping full weight

on my Boo Radley

then a return to

the bed, where he

turned in circles

bumping us with

his body to wake

us up, then lay

between our heads

trembling

panting

as if there were

a ghost.

I took them out,

all three,

in the light balmy

mist of the

pitch black

Georgia backwoods

starry skies

thought of the bits

of squirrel tail

over near the tree

line where violent

death hung in the

recent air

we came back

inside, and I turned

off the light to return

to bed.

A flicker after the

switch-off, and I

knew.

Hello, Mom!

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Reality

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every few days

I have the urge

to sell everything

we own and move

into the camper with

two plates, two forks,

and two spoons

and share a knife~

to retire, take to

the highways, see

the changing landscape

of America, pulling

our flatware and

plates from

site to site

no particular place to be

no pressing deadline to meet

then I come to my senses

trying to reckon with the

reality of the silverware

drawer and all those

cabinets.

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Horror Farm

out by the tree line

of Loblolly pines

fifty feet from our

front door

where the Great

Horned Owl pair

chats across the

pine branches

at 5 a.m.

Ollie and Fitz

stopped in their tracks

to smell the rotting leaves.

They looked like charcoal,

only fuzzy. More like a

squirrel tail torn to shreds.

Or a rabbit.

I had just told my children

about rabbit, rabbit earlier

on the first day of June.

Was this a harbinger of

death for this poor

creature gone except

for its fur?

This farm holds mysteries

that will never yield answers.

It’s been the Johnson

Funny Farm since 1971

when three farmhands

saw a trio of cross-eyed pigs

but it’s not all funny here.

Sometimes there is

a twinge of horror against

all the laughter and tears.

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Visual Vexations

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Visual Vexations

my brother and I

wonder still: were

Mom’s Lewy Body Dementia

confusions visual

distortions or hallucinations?

She saw a little boy in an

orange shirt sitting all alone

at the storefront and worried

about his safety.

We saw a pumpkin.

She saw strange men with

bunches of bananas

under the carport.

We saw family members

building her a wheelchair

ramp with Dewalt power tools.

She heard voices playing

tricks on her. We heard

branches scratching

the shutters in the wind.

Still, we wonder what she

would see now.

Would she know we are

her children, making our

way through this carnival

funhouse with all these

distorting mirrors

of the complex

and the concave,

wondering, too,

what things are?

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Rabbit Rabbit

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all this rabbit rabbit

of yesterday to have

good luck all month ~

a maddening superstition

bringing more stress about

the forgetting is bad luck

enough to forego the

continuation

to begin to ask why

we do this to ourselves

why rabbit, rabbit?

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All This Pain

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the closest we

ever got to a

rainbow was a

peacock feather

the day the two

went to Noah’s Ark

to look for things

to discover

to wonder about

I didn’t feel like

that kind of mother

who says a prayer

and leaves it in

the lap of Jesus

without worry

I was more

the warrior type

praying everyday

hoping all the

nickels would add

up to be worth a miracle

I knew in the back

of my mind when I

saw the Cheshire Cat

smile

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Blue Eyes

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they were getting

ready for an afternoon

wedding when the

husband stepped out

of the shower, kissed

his wife, said

I love you, Blue Eyes

laid down on the

bed and died of

a heart attack

leaving her and

their four sons

grieving

this is why when

my husband came

to my bedside

this morning before

stepping into his

shower and kissed

me I wondered:

should I give him

an aspirin?

should I take one?

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Puddled Teeth

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in the sluice

of a Skytrack

crush and run

puddle a gold

shimmer reveals

a tooth

then another

and before I

wonder about

whose teeth

I imagine the

last food

chewed with

these gold

capped jewels ~

a steak?

a pork chop?

a can of

Beanie-Weenies?

a worker ambled

past pointing

at the carnage

explaining how

the fight broke

out between

two men over

his cousin’s girl

(the cheater)

and though I

did not know

who grew

these teeth

I wondered

about the

places

they’d been

before landing

in the puddled

heap all

sparkly like a

sequined dress

never to be

worn again

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Ticks ~ Husband vs. Wife

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Wife: Oh, good gracious! A tick!

(gets tweezers, removes tick, flushes it)

7 seconds later finishes

applying makeup, gets dressed and starts

writing before work in her favorite chair

***********

Husband: (hollers from shower)

Can you come here?

I need you to look at something!

Wife: (hollers back) I’m not falling for that again.

Husband: No, seriously.

I think I have a tick.

Wife: I’ll be there when you get out.

Husband: (parading into living room

towel wrapped around his waist,

still half-wet, hair every whichaway,

pointing just under his left nipple)

No wonder I’ve been itching since

we got home from camping!

Wife: Are you sure it’s a tick? It’s

embedded deep. It’s not a mole?

Husband: I don’t think so.

Do you have tweezers?

Wife: Yes, I’ll get them.

(brings them from makeup bag)

Husband: Here, you try! (hands tweezers back)

Wife: (rolling eyes)

Husband: Well, I can’t see that angle

Wife: There’s a mirror right

behind you (digging at embedded

tick, husband wincing)

Husband: Here, let me try

(takes tweezers)

Wait, do you have different

tweezers? These aren’t lining up right.

Wife: (goes and looks for another pair

brings them back 3 minutes later)

Husband: (still digging) I got part of it

Wife: The head is still in there.

Husband: I’ll dig that out later. I’m

going to be late for work…..

(dresses, kisses her, grabs coffee, leaves for work)

Wife returns to chair to finish writing

<writes: Ticks ~ Husband vs. Wife>

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers