It’s A Thin Line…

Posted on by
4

Got on the train in the midst of a married couple having a major lovers’ spat on the subway. Nasty hygiene, who slept with whom, the whole laundry basket. Everyone around them were interested in their books/tablets/music etc. The desperate were highly engrossed in the subway advertisements farthest down the car.

I could hear them through my ear buds. And yes the iPod was up as loud as I dared after the crap I overheard the other day (my Facebook friends know about it, I’ll spare the rest of you).  Still, after a solid 1/2 hour I could not take it any more and screamed at them. “For Christ’s sake, if you can’t get along together at home, stay the hell apart when you’re away from it! You are our *elders*! The ones who are supposed to be our examples of love in longevity and longevity in love.  You wonder why we young ones don’t know how to be together? Who the hell are we to learn from when you behave like this?! “

Now mind you, who is a couple of weeks shy being 50? This gal. We young ones? HAH! Boy, was I on mini rant.

They, and several commuters; turned to me stunned. I actually, I was pretty surprised at myself. I sat there fully prepared to be cussed out and put in my place for getting in grown folks business. Because yes, Ma Pot and Pa Kettle Black were well into their 70s.

Surprisingly, after apologizing to everyone within earshot, they did not say another word for about 15 minutes until they disembarked. Then they were all ‘Honey’, ‘Sweetness’, lovey-freaking-dovey. The crazy part is it was clearly as genuine as the arguing earlier.

No matter the age, it’s a thin line indeed…

<>==========<>==========<>
Slice of Life Teal

Slice of Life Writing Challenge

Unbidden

Posted on by
6

.

These things and more I’m powerless to stop,
Thoughts of you coming unbidden and unblocked,
Enchanting and bewitching, you have captured my soul,
Lost and helpless, my body aches anon with your toll.
Lucius Kane / Unbidden Thoughts

Time’s jests had fooled us all to think of spring
Oh but winter but still had some fight within
Exposed by the elements did bring
Torn umbrellas now tossed into trash bins
The sudden storm made mockery of the thing
Just walking in the rain, garments given to sop
It takes away all pretense of privacy
Our peaked bodies’ crow with immodesty
It is sooner to control the next dew to drop
These things and more I’m powerless to stop

Oh send in the clowns for surely it’s some joke
How thoughts of that day even now make me swoon
And the fire within the memory doth stoke
It moves in from the dark side of the moon
And decorum evaporates like smoke
I watch my resiliency become something to mock
Trapped within my own dreams hot finish
With relief I succumb to my soul’s wish
I suppose by now I should not be shocked
Thoughts of you coming unbidden and unblocked

We’ve known each other since youth, shoes unlaced
And long ago packed away the trappings of such
Do I mistake that your feelings are of even pace?
Or do I project on you that which I do want so much?
For you to yearn for my touch upon more than your face
And there’s naught but one way for this ache to console
For without you I find I can’t breathe none the less
When with you I find I’m completely breathless
When the seeds of patience blossom into reality whole
Enchanting and bewitching, you have captured my soul

I dared not imagine it could ever be like this
That this joy wholly felt I’d even be worthy of
The elation of knowing your sweetest of kiss
Or the love that came from up above
Now just footsteps away from consuming bliss
Your crooked finger beckons in sweet cajole
And I decide there are few sweeter sounds in life
Than heard quote the words that made you my wife
No cost so high of favors – this heart can deny dole
Lost and helpless, my body aches anon with your toll.

<>==========<>==========<>

dVerse Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight – Week 110

How Could You…?

Posted on by
3

So, after some serious internet searching on Sunday, I finally saw the “Harriet Tubman Sex Tape” video by Russell Simmons’ All Def Digital that raised such a stink.  I didn’t even watch it all because all I found myself asking and continue to ask is…

How could you…?

Females in general have so few women in history to look up to and aspire to, to begin with. American historical females are much fewer and the number of American heroines of color that is even smaller still. And you take Harriet Tubman, the most courageous, the most noble of them, the most widely known black woman in history next to Rosa Parks and turn her into some antebellum Jezebel for the sake of what was presumed to be satire. No! Just no!

How could you?

To the actors and crew involved, yeah, I know… It’s just a job, and you got paid. If you did not do it, someone else surely would have. So the money might as well go in your pocket, right?  I hope you are all proud of it because this will permanently be on your IMDB page someday.  I get it, really I do, but still I ask…

How could you…?

Russell, how little you must think of the woman who made such remarkable history! Clearly, you do not respect her or her deeds.   Deeds, may I remind you, that were among the stepping-stones, which now give you the ability to create the tripe you posted in the name of humor.

What on earth made you –the collective you for all who participated in this nonsense, but you Russell Simmons specifically– think this would be acceptable, let alone funny, to the intelligent general public and to black women in particular? You didn’t.

And that is what is so appalling.

Black women here in America spend every damned day of their lives overtly or otherwise fighting sexual stereotypes.  Stereotypes placed upon us by the very type of “massas” portrayed in your little piece of jacked-up faux history.  Over a century later and we women of color are still fighting those stereotypes just so you can take Harriet Tubman, one of the very few examples of black womanhood who was above all of that nonsense, and turn her into a sexual parody.

How could you…?

Simmons, you are –well, I thought you were– an intelligent man.  There is NO way you could not have known there was going to be some backlash on this. Perhaps not as much as what you received, but you had to know. I believe this was done solely for getting All Def Digital noticed. There were so many other ways All Def Digital could have debuted to be smart, edgy, relevant, and divisive. You chose to make a mockery of Harriet Tubman.  By making her a joke of this caliber you diminish not just the woman, but everything for which she is known.

And do you want to know the real funny part? Image this video some 50, 20, 10, hell perhaps as little as two years from now. When all of us have moved on to the latest hullabaloo of the time, some ignorant racist assholes –who managed to download a copy before you had your ass handed to you and pulled the content off YouTube– will  show this to others of their ilk and pass it on as ‘historical truth’.  All because of you  thought it was something hilarious. Ha-ha, very funny motherfucker.

We need to fight not just to preserve her history and her reputation. Not just Tubman’s, but all the sisters  who have managed to make an indelible mark on our history.  In addition, to keep known for our future generations for the truths they are. Not tear them down, not desecrate their images to garner base humor.

How could you?

<>==========<>==========<>
Slice of Life Teal

See what other Slices are happening at Two Writing Teachers!

Don’t Think

Posted on by
8

.

.

Don’t think about all the things you fear, just be glad to be here

Eyes meet across a noisy, crowed room
Think long, think wrong it’s just for show.
Fire weds desire, emotions in bloom
Don’t over think the moment just go with the flow.

Whose to say that this mutual attraction,
Is just momentary thrill?
Is this another chance you let go in your lifetime?
Or do you do what you will?

Don’t think about all the things you fear, just be glad to be here

Do you want the comfort of a perfect stranger?
Do you feel you’ve known each other all along?
Do you want safety? Do you want danger?
There is no right or wrong.

‘Cause in the morning you may not care.
‘Cause in the morning you may want it all.
It may not go any further from there.
But if you’re to rise, you’ve first got to fall.

Don’t think about all the things you fear, just be glad to be here

Tomorrow may be joy, the day after sorrow,
Don’t fret about what the Fates will allow.
You’ve only got right now.

Only now.

Don’t think about all the things you fear, just be glad to be here

<>==========<>==========<>

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight  – Week 109

With a  slight nod to FC Kahuna’s “Hayling“.

That Which Is Called…

Posted on by
2

What’s in a name? Shakespeare asks.

Clearly he was never subjected to the abject cruelty of schoolyard children to the poor child whose mama got a little thoughtless in the naming department. I’m also guessing one simply did not use a diminutive in those days. At least not one associated with male anatomy, right William?

<>==========<>==========<>

Another go at Flash Fiction, also called sudden fiction, micro fiction or nanofiction via Friday 55.
Write a story in exactly 55 words, then tell the G-Man!

Royal Pains…

Posted on by
1

Let me begin with, I honestly am happy for Kate and William. I am glad the newest prince is healthy. I truly am as happy as I would be for any woman successfully bringing life into this world.  However, that is where my empathy/sympathy begins and ends.

I hold my hand up and totally acknowledge my desire to be the total bitch here.  You’ve been warned…

So, Catherine (Kate) Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, had a baby…

Yay, we’re celebrating the business of royal marital arrangements a.k.a. your womb is mine a.k.a. what’s love got to do with it?

Yeah, I said it.

They had a year and a half of time to themselves as man and wife. Most of it spent introducing the new bride to the rest of the free world.  Well, as much time as a young couple can have when heirs to the monarchy of one of the most prosperous of the first-world nations that is, but eventually the honey moon period is over. Duties await and what is a new royal wife’s first royal duty? – why to be an heir making apparatus of course. Don’t kid yourself, Kate performed her royal duty to the Crown and popped out an heir as fast as not-so-little Willie could pump one in her. I’m giving them three years max before Royal Tot #2 is out. After all, there must be a royal back-up baby in case, well, you know….  Royal Tot #2 can ask good ol’ Uncle Harry about how always being 2nd best feels, once he or she gets here.

So, Princess Catherine had a baby…

So did blank.blank million other women yesterday. Are we globally Facebooking and Tweeting about all of them?  I didn’t think so.  I wonder how many of the imminent-to-be  mothers were thinking ‘Ooh my baby is born on the same day!”? Oh come on, you know some of the ones in British territories did, or they will once they learn of the coincidence.  I’m guessing the rest of the women in the world, whose contracting wombs, widening canals, separating hips and ripping perineum were likely too preoccupied.  I could be wrong.

So, Kate Middleton had a baby…

Mind you, I fully comprehend the British interest in such; after all she is their princess.  I’ll even branch it out to Europe in general as they are all nearby neighbors of the monarchy such as it is, so love thy neighbor and such. What I don’t get is the American fascination with such so that nearly every other status post in Facebook and Twitter tweets are still yapping on about the royal birth. Hmm, I wonder what Kate would about all those who are playing the baby’s birth date or weight/length and other such factoids at the numbers/lotto/horse race?

I feel as though I am the only hard-nose, heartless wretch not wearing the “Awww the prince and princess had a baby!” rose-colored glasses in this.

So Kate had a baby…  

She’s fine? Yes.  The baby’s fine? Yes.  Okay then. What’s for lunch…?

 

You WERE warned…

<>==========<>==========<>
Slice of Life Teal

Slice of Life Weekly Writing Challenge – Jul SOLSC #4 

I Lay Here Waiting

Posted on by
7

.
.
I lay here waiting

Waiting for you to touch me
Lay your hand upon me

Your thoughts utter chaos,
Needing the clarity
That only I can bring

I lay here waiting

As your fingers tap the table
Impatient, frustrated

You know what you need to do
What you need to say
Yet you refuse

I lay here waiting

As near as your heartbeat
As far as your heartache

You stare for a long time
And for a long time see nothing
Your vision blurry with unshed tears

I lay here waiting

Morning shadows from the left
Now late day shadows on my right

But if you would just touch me
Just let one word, just one escape
All the rest will come in a flood of truth

I lay here waiting

For you to put down your pride
For you to pick up your pen

Then pour your heart out
So she’ll let your love in
Instead you stand and walk away

And I lay here waiting,
a letter never to be…

<>==========<>==========<>

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight – Week 119

Verbal Diarrhea Diaries: Callipygian Earnestness

Posted on by
1

Verbal Diarrhea Diaries (a.k.a. the shit that comes out of my mouth):

So, while holding a bag  that clearly contains my lunch in hand, I am about to enter the revolving door of my office building when I spy a colleague exiting. I stand to the side and wait for him to exit.

Seeing my bag he inquires of it contents.  I tell him it’s “poison”.  I have no idea why, but I can tell by his expression that he doubts the veracity of my statement.

“What?  You were warned years ago to never trust a big butt.” I say as I make it a point to smile broadly.

He’s stumped for all of .1 seconds before he starts grinning.

“I can’t play with you.” He throws up his hands and walks away, shaking his head while laughing.

Was it something I said?

– blame Bell Biv DeVoe!

Feeling Good

Posted on by
9

.

I’m feeling good…

Good like the cool rain taking the heat out of a sultry day
Like the breeze causing my skirt to gently sway
In that zany, loopy fun kind of cray

Good like finding a long-lost favored ring
A walk in the park the first days of spring
On a hot day, a sip of some cool fruity thing

Good like cutting with the Little Joker in Spades
Knowing I still have the big one to be played
Hiding the gleam in my eyes behind some shades

Oh, I’m feeling good.

For I’ve  spent way too many days with my smile lying
Fake laughing to cover how my heart was crying
In a world not even close to caring how my soul was dying

And too long I let others tell me how I should be
But never was it ever what I knew I could be
So now I only work on what is it good to me

Now that’s not saying I’m not feeling for my brothers set adrift
Or lost my empathy for my sisters getting the short shrift
Or that I don’t care about our socio and economic rift

Because sometimes the world makes me wanna holla from that stress
And like Marvin I want to know what’s going on with this mess and…

Excuse me, I digress…

Where was I?

Yeah, but right now? I’m feeling good!

Good like looking the mirror and loving the sight
Whether in silks by day or leathers by night
When I know I’ve got it all together so tight

Good enough to wear a mini in a skinny crowd
Not hide my beauty in some mumu or shroud
Head high, gut forward, loud and proud

And yes, sometimes it comes to pass
That there are those who chose to lambast
For they have a problem with my fat ass

But I’m not the one that’s going to obsess
And with each bite of food reassess and…

Oh excuse me again, I digress…

I am feeling good!

Good like having a day that started with doubt
But then proving I do know what I’m about
And later catching someone fine checking me out

That kind of good that can only come from within
That sneaky good I feel when I’m about to sin
With the one that gives me more than just a grin

The good of being in the zone
When my voice takes on that tone
Like the sound of a pleasured moan

Good like when I get that feeling of that special caress
From the hand slipping slowly under my dress and…

Damn, did it again, huh? My bad… Excuse me… I digress…

But no, y’all just don’t understand! I’m feeling good!

The giddy with friends that’s fondly tolerated
The kind of good that’s always celebrated
Where those near can’t help be feel elevated!

Feeling like Joy has answered my speed dial!
Good like not a thing on this earth can cramp my style
Good like the strength of my strut, the gleam of my smile

Good for the first time in a long time I feel like I’m able
To handle the crap still left on my mental table
Feeling a  good, that’s so good, that I a poet can’t even label!

Umph –  that kind of good!

And yeah I know I can’t sing it as Nina would, but

Birds flying high, you know how I feel
Sun up in the sky, you know how I feel
Leaves drifting on by, you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me and…

I’m feeling GOOD!

<>==========<>==========<>

Feeling good about dVerse ~ Poets Pub’s | OpenLinkNight : Week 104

Each Tick

Posted on by
4

.
.
Each tick of the clock ticks quick,
Leaving me

Trying to make the moments last,
That should have long since slipped away
Trying to stall what will soon be the past
From knocking on my door any coming day

For all the years we’ve cared
Our time together has dwindled
For all the time we’ve shared
I still feel our time was swindled

Each tick of the clock ticks quick,
Leaving me feeling haunted

Within every inch of my soul
With a strength I can’t believe,
I stand here in total control
As I’m watching you leave.

Good-bye does not mean forever,
Or so we tell ourselves so,
But it’s going to be a long time
Before we can smile and say hello.

Each tick of the clock ticks quick,
Leaving me with what I thought I wanted

We’re adults, we made the decision,
At least as far as I can tell.
So why am I unhappy with this division?
When being together was such hell

Surprised I have tears left to cry
For something once never conceived of.
Never thought I’d be saying good-bye.
To someone I still love

Each tick of the clock ticks quick,
Leaving me

<>==========<>==========<>
dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week : 103