meme me

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Maggie C

The Daily Post discover challenge: In The Style Of

Five poems, five lines, five syllables

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Maggie C

ONE
osprey standing proud
wind-ruffled feathers
sharp beak, sharp talons
sharp eyes watch for prey
owning this river

TWO
most call you a weed
I see a flower
most would destroy you
I pick your seed head
make a wish and blow

THREE
I wish I could feel
the stories you’ve lived
touch your rough ridges
ascertain your truths
splinters withstanding

FOUR
february lull
deserted branches
streets stripped of traffic
evergreen signals
drive us into spring

FIVE
skating on thin ice
isn’t as dire as
it’s cracked up to be
if the ice holds, it’s
icing on the cake

The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Numbers

It Takes All Kinds

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Maggie C

JNW’s Halloween Challenge: Blood
The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Mixing Media

I Just Want to Be

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Maggie C

“I’m miserable,” she utters despondently.
Her head drops to the table,
face smushed into the sleeves of her sweatshirt.
“I just want to be happy.”

Happy? Hell, I’d settle for functional.

“Is that too much to ask?”
She sniffles into her sleeve.

“Not at all,” he says.
“Everyone deserves to be happy.”
Kind eyes. Calm voice. Practiced cadence.

How does one deserve an emotion? I wonder.
Either you feel it, or you don’t.

Or is it a state, and not an emotion?
The state of happiness…
Can one deserve to be in a state?

What about the state of depression?
No one deserves that, that’s for sure.
Then again, no one would likely say,
“I just want to be depressed.”

The clock on the wall seems frozen.
I will the hands to move more quickly.
They don’t.
Perhaps I don’t deserve a faster clock.

He turns toward me. Observation mode.
I don’t meet his gaze, but I don’t look away, either.
Blank eyes. Silence. Practiced apathy.

“And how are you this morning?” he asks gently.
I consider the question.
Perhaps I should have prepared a response.
It’s not like I didn’t know he’d ask.

“Depressed,” I say.
“That’s why I’m here.”

I just want to be well.
Is that too much to ask?

The Daily Post Discovery Challenge: Radical Authenticity

The Literary Styles of Pets

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Maggie C

The Skimmer sifts through many books quickly, but can’t decide on which to read until they’ve slept on it.

The Marathoner tries to read all the books in the library, but eventually must concede to exhaustion.

The Ill-tempered peruses the books, and finding nothing of interest (i.e. food treats), sits and stares daggers at the librarian.

The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Animal

Pop-top

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Maggie C

I opened my mind once;
pulled that ring on the pop-top lid
and peeled it back.
It made a scritchy noise, that
aluminum on aluminum sound you hear
when you pull the tab on
your favorite cheap canned beer.

My mind hadn’t been opened
in a very long time, and I was curious as to
what might come pouring out.
Imagine my surprise when
I tipped it bottoms up and found
Not. One. Drop.

The thing about opening a parched mind
is that it suddenly realizes just how
thirsty it’s been.
It wants to sate itself with new experiences.
New thoughts, sights, sounds, aromas.
New textures, emotions, connections, insights.
And surprises. It craves the unexpected.

Have you ever tried to replace
a pop-top tab on a can of cheap beer
once the can’s been thoroughly shaken?
With froth shooting out and
liquid overflowing, it’s impossible.

You wouldn’t want to close it back up, anyway.
Once unsealed, if you don’t drink the beverage fresh,
it just goes flat and stale.

I couldn’t close my mind again,
couldn’t make that pop-top tab
fit back into place.
But that’s okay.
If I don’t imbibe these new
experiences while fresh,
they will just go stale and flat.

Let’s raise a toast
to open minds!
(But let’s forego
the cheap canned beer.)

The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Open-Minded

Discovery

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Maggie C

I wanted to get away from it all, even though
I didn’t know what “it all” was exactly.
I just knew it wasn’t where I was,

and it wasn’t
sitting within the same walls and
looking out the same windows and
thinking the same thoughts and
falling into the same rutted patterns
of my daily existence.

I searched for someplace remote
but near civilization,
rustic
but with amenities,
in the wilderness
but not too wild…

and I found it:
a cabin
in the woods
in a forest
that I had thought only existed
in my dreams,

and it was
sitting on a porch
with my closest family members
looking at wildlife and tall trees and mountains in the distance,
thinking more expansively in the vastness of the forest,
falling into new patterns of peaceful companionship,

and while getting away from it all
I discovered that “it all”
is actually a matter of perspective and
is always
exactly where I am.

The Daily Post Discover Challenge: Designed for You
The Daily Post daily prompt: Learning