The cows are hiding under the overpass as pedestrians melt into the pavements above. A wild flush of quivering heat advances on the kinds of living beings that can’t endure, the shifting of climate change. We run faster and faster, yet our feet stick to the asphalt like tar to shingles and the mice shake the dry dust from their thin hairs. Polar bears have no time to consider the rest of us as they plunge into frigid waters turning…
“Look Auntie! Come look!” Oh dear, this child is going to keep distracting me, the clouds are coming in, albeit slowly but I want to get these weeds out of the gravel and plant the new Bougainvillea before it rains. She’s stooping beside the pink rosebush, her tiny toes crunched in the dirt, one hand clutching a dried leaf and the other pointing at some invisible thing by the roses. Standing carefully, as that’s how I do it now, I…
Circling the roundabout to the corner of Poppy Terrace, Lisa started to imagine her home. It had been a very long week, fraught with emotion, heavy workloads, ignorant people and too many fast food lunches. She was grateful to be leaving the stark grey building with the windows overlooking the roofs of other stark grey or beige buildings, some with sudo gardens of trees and half baked flowers. She was so excited when she could finally say to her parents…
Grief flew through the ether like an arrow, lifted by emotions of fear, loneliness, and loss. The speed and precision made it even more fierce while clouds wept rain and birds sang songs of praise. The heart stands tethered to earth, grows wide with silenced screams, and the skin on which rain falls tightens in its attempt to hold it all together. The rising sun cares not for pain, but nature reaches in and wipes all tears with golden strands….
You peek in my door and think you know me, know who I am, that you know my name. You see me in my skirt today, the one with the dried food below the hip; the one my sweet baby girl wiped her mouth on as she stood grabbing my knees for stability, you think you know me and that I’m filthy or poor. You peek in and you surmise my demise, you revile my situation that you fail to…