#vss365
Mama warned me
but I went to you in defiance
I called it free will.

Mama said “shameful girl”
when I went to you
out of spite, or vanity.

I think of you
sink to my #undersea hideaway
get drunk on my tears.

I think of Mama
I call you Hades
I never say your name.

#vss365
I have a bag of #trickery
tucked inside my purse.
I can tell your fortune.
I can cast a curse.

So before you scorn me
or do something bad,
consider what may happen
should I go mad.

Thank you. That milestone e came with a huge boost of personal confidence. 💪❤️

❤️❤️❤️

Thank you. 🥰

#vss365
It came
not with marriage,
not with motherhood,
or divorce.

My #investiture of adulthood:
a ceremonial transaction,
a signing,
an exchange of keys.

I was rewarded
for my audacity in believing
I could do this,
on my own.

Thank you.🫶 I had a better version but alas, character count edits win at vss. ❤️

#vss365
Unaware of Helios’ desire
a maiden slept
alabaster skin
burned by Hades’ ire

Anemoi’s gossip winds
whip up jealousy
Klytie, Helios’ lover
casts a girl to sea

Poseidon swallows her
His hunger to be sated
salt #seafoam roils
wave after wave
she washes ashore

wanted no more
as the gods fated

#vss365
Vibrations in the floor signal:
look up! look up! look up!
a #hammer striking an anvil,
ringing a silent alarm.
Motion at the edge of my vision
scattering bodies,
contorted faces,
panic.
a danger I can't hear.

#vss365

When we sisters gather,
a feast of emotion is served.
Each #word brought to the table
sits indigestible.

Spoiled memories
roil and rise.

We are gut punched
and heart sick,
old and orphaned.

No one reminds us
to stop fighting,
that we are sisters.

#vss365
Lost in a #loop
your #letters arrived
answers to questions
never asked

I fill my glass
from the tap
stand at the #sink
sipping tepid #water

If I look up
there are blue skies
birds #sing
The faucet drowns it all

I sip, swallow
drink an empty song
keep my head down
lost in what went wrong

Thank you. 💜🫶

#vss365
I wear shoes in my yard
because I know
snakes ignore fences,
bees hide in clover.

I temper my speech
because I know
the sting of mama’s hand,
the ache of my daughter's tears.

I am no longer #blind to dangers lurking—
because I have known monsters,
because I have been a monster.

#vss365
A boat gently rocks beneath the moon
dark ripples wake the shore
young love succumbs to la petite mort
and rocks the boat once more.

Entwined bodies drown in desire
each swimming for the #bank
Venus rises from the bayou
while her Adonis sank.

#vss365
The prison #ink down his #arm told the story of his life: from the #hand of a clock fixed at his mother's time of death to a single grain of #sand suspended in an hourglass.

He slipped the class #ring over an arthritic knuckle, and with a chained #pen he signed the release form.

Thank you. 🤠❤️

#vss365
I believed
in falling star wishes
& fairy-tale knights

Then you appeared
ordinarily handsome
dressed like a cowboy #man

Your eyes reflected my future
Your arms held me steady
Your kiss broke fantasy's spell

I woke from a Disney dream
to find a real-life hero
a dad-bod husband
my true love

#vss365
Mad King Midas—
with a golden curse,
everything he touches
is made even worse.

Congress of sycophants
can’t play nice—
#exalt his #conduct,
don't know virtue from vice.

Silver-spoon-fed babies
flexing their birth right
they're all sandbox bullies
crying “unfair!” when they start a fight.

Thank you🧚‍♀️❤️🐝

#vss365
She passed away
from this earthly realm,
born anew
into fairyland.

She’s now a #sprite,
a garden fae,
her gossamer wings
in full display.

I saw her
bossing a honey bee,
remembering
how she used to be.

A pink tea rose
she wants painted red—
so you see,
she isn’t dead.

#vss365
I am sick,
burning up
with spring fever.

My delirium of daydreams
#revolve around love:
#illusive love,
forever love, true love.

I am incurable—
a romantic,
hopelessly in need
of your kiss.

#vss365
A curated collection
current of social cliques
we play a game of small talk
showing off our wits

In circulating #tempest
over wine, I overshare
appall or #fascinate
depending on one's air

In shifting squalls
I can never win
loved or hated
I'll weather in the end
I will weather in the end.

#vss365

a leaf takes flight
upon the air—
aimless, light,
in Zephyr’s care

does this #frustrate
the budding branch—
to hold life tight,
then set it free

a parent’s role:
to watch children grow,
and trust they weather
whatever winds may blow

#vss365
At a family reunion,
I met his kin.
I wanted them to like me
as much as I loved him.

It came time for a photo—
his mother said to me,
“You should not be in this;
it’s just for family.”

She never did #endorse me,
he chose me anyway.
Thirty years of love—
growing stronger every day.

#vss365
I am Susan B Anthony
dressed in white
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Alice Paul
suffragettes
Voting is my right

I am Margaret Sanger
fighting for autonomy
Gloria Steinem
Norma Rae Webster
workplace equality

I am a flag #waver
pick a color, pick a day
If I fall silent
one by one
my rights slip away

#vss365
Death brought a divide,
as if forced by grief—
inconsolable grief.

Old wounds reopened,
a treacherous chasm
filled by a river of tears
none dared cross.

Orphaned siblings,
estranged by sorrow,
each choosing solitude
to live with the #divide.

Thank you. ❤️

#vss365
I felt the shift,
the chill,
when you turned
on me.

The space between us
#overcast—
clouded by history,
by her story.

Doubt
clung to every word,
shading my truth—

The forecast for us
is stormy—
no silver linings,
no rainbows,
only grey.

#vss365
twenty years ago,
two twenty-year-olds
married on the twentieth of March.

It took twenty years,
and two children,
for their love to run its course.

Tomorrow—
they meet unwillingly
to negotiate custody.

Paying lawyers
and a stranger
to #mediate the fate—
of their family.

Man, I understand. I've been going through a little readjust ing of my on perception of life. Maybe we will both be there, on solid ground, by end of summer. I reading alot of Epictetus to help me.🤞 💪🫶💜🐰