Requiem In Sulpher

I was a firecracker,

way back when,

in the days before I knew what kind of stretch I was looking at.

I used to talk to cab drivers

and smile for no reason

and count my friends in pecks and bushels and bunches.

I tempted fate

and danced all night

and made the first move with my eyes.

I was all

flying tissue streamers

and

“Catch-Me-If-You-Can”

and

“Yeah?-You-Wanna-Bet?”

But there are things you should know

about firecrackers, right?

like,

they only have one fuze

and,

they’re impatient,

and,

in the end,

what you’re left with,

after waiting out the dusk with a lit match,

Is a pile of tissue streamer ash

and the smell of burning.

Achieve

The Prompt:

What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today.  (Author: Tara Sophia Mohr)

An Open Letter to the Old Man:

We’ve had a rough year, you and I.  A rough three years if we’re going to be honest with one another–which is what I’ve promised you and am falling all over myself trying to deliver.  Words have been spoken and deeds done, hurts inflicted, pain endured; here we find ourselves miles from the alter and stone sober from the sting of life.  Your name is written all over everything I want to achieve this year.  So, for you, some bad poetry:

Let

If the lights are out and apocalypse strikes, let us be standing side by side.

If I’m splattered in blood and missing a shoe, let it be your hand I’m holding.

When the wolves have come and gone and collected their pound of flesh, let it be your breath on my face that revives me.

When the din of the laughers and pointers screams about my ears, let it be your voice I hear above all others.

Let us be together, against the world, smiling as it lays us low.  Let me have that man

who jumped in the puddle,

who bustled my dress,

who defended my honor,

who dared to say yes.

Let us walk ahead, blindly, and with hope, our faces inclined to the middle.  Let me be that girl

who needs a man,

who points at rainbows,

who bites your lips,

who insists you’ll love that show.

In truth, in dreams, in memories,

let you and me be we.

Let we mean us.

Let us BE.

a frightful snicker.

you’d laugh today.

laugh and say “I told you so.”

before, it would’ve been funny, and we’d have shared a glass of wine.

another delightfully me mess to clean up.

but now, it’s spiteful, and you’re glad.

that is, if you knew what you were laughing at.

if you still cared to hit ‘send’.

which you don’t.

i know.