Death's Forest

A while back Titus had a call for scary poems, and I remembered one that I wrote back when I was 12 or 13 or so. I emailed it to her on a whim and she used the darn thing! I figured it was too long for her purposes, but I guess she made it work.

I was going to wait until Halloween to post it, but decided to go ahead - after all, this was probably the time of year I wrote it. I had gone to the woods to think (or get away from my brother or the dusting), and our dog scared me. So I wrote a poem that wasn't about a scary dog at all.

[Note: I didn't edit it at all - this is exactly how I wrote it in my journal - so we all have to live with "loomin'" Sorry!]

Death’s Forest

The pool was dark,

The shadows forbidding.

The rickety bridge

Told tales never-ending.

The trees that stood tall

Seemed unnaturally human.

They leered at me, laughed

With jeering branches loomin’.

The wind whistled loud

And the voices began.

I wished myself far away

From this eerie land.

“Go home Melissa,”

The wind seemed to say,

“Leave the wood quickly

Or you’ll never get away.”

I wanted to flee,

To leave this strange place

But when I turned to go

I saw his face.

He began to speak

His voice very low,

“I’m Death Melissa.

But, surely, you know.”

     _______

They say that I’m daft,

That my mind will never mend.

They say that I’m lying.

That it was branches, and wind.

But the children know I’m not lying,

That my mind isn’t wrong.

And they don’t go to the forest

Where Death sings his song.

2012 Project 365 – Week Seventeen

Didn’t I just post our P365 pictures yesterday? What happened to the other six days? Let’s see…

Sunday, April 22^nd      

The Weekly Squirrel.

The great hair cutting extravaganza. It took about 5 minutes, but of course I had to document every step. As you will see, it didn’t really change my hair drastically. I do have one piece that’s shorter than I expected, but I think that if you look at the pictures closely you’ll see why – I think my upside down pony wasn’t really straight. I’ll be more careful next time.

I made Dr. M toss the maple seed whirligigs up into the air so I could capture their whimsy. Fun!

Monday, April 23^rd    

The Tax Time Pig! In a lovely crochet (or knitted) ensemble. And his goosey sidekicks – Frick & Frack.

Dr. M took some fun bird pictures

Tuesday, April 24^th

Dr. M took pictures of the honeysuckle bush on our back fence. Lovely…

               

Wednesday, April 25^th  

Sheep!!!

And the campus herd.

Thursday, April 26^th   

Dr. M participated in a Shakespeare’s birthday celebration. In this scene he played Hamlet.

This was supposed to be a solemn moment, but they got tickled (Dr. M is the king in this scene).

The Bard himself…

Friday, April 27^th     

My lunch – an open face tuna & Cheeto sandwich. Yes, it was very tasty – why do you ask? Oh, & I didn’t spell anything with the Cheetos – Dr. M spent a frustrating few minutes trying to figure it out until I told him.

Dr. M took pictures of tulips – gorgeous!

Saturday, April 28^th      

I started reading a new book. Note the reading glasses - I’ve gotten spoiled by my Kindle!

Go to Sara’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask! 

A Poem (or two) in My Pocket

Tomorrow is Poem in Your Pocket day. You can read about it here. Rather than pick a favorite poem to carry around I decided to write my own. I’m trying a new form, the TriCube, created by Phillip Larrea. Basically there are three stanzas with three lines each, with each line containing three syllables. You can read about Phillip & some (much better!) examples of the TriCube form here.

My first one, inspired by what’s happening outside our house right now:

All that rain

 washing clean

  washed away.

Memory

 blurring with

  rivulets.

Words in pools

 at my feet

  wanting boots.

And this one – aimed at Mike – ha!

  Behind me

I hear your

  fingers tap -

  Words will fly

across space

  to some friend

  Close the lid!

Shut it down!

  Kiss my face!

1111

I have a great job that I enjoy. I don’t even mind my commute most days. But lately I’ve just been feeling beaten down by life. And I have a good life! But this morning, as I was fighting the alarm for the umpteenth time (I am not a morning person!) I started wondering – how long have I been living counter to my body clock?

I’ve been working a 9ish to 5ish job on a regular basis since January 1991. I’d of course had jobs before then, but either they were in Africa (that wasn’t a job – it was an adventure!), or worked around my school schedule. So 1991 was my first real job. Of course, I had to do the math. That’s 1111 weeks of working (not counting holidays & vacations).

I’m thinking of the “good old days” when a person (usually a man) put in his 30 & retired. I’ve got 9 more years to go for my 30 – but I won’t be retiring. For one thing, I haven’t been at the same place for all those years. I just had my 10th anniversary at my current company – that’s the longest I’ve ever worked anywhere.

Oh it all just makes me too tired to think. Last night I thought – I don’t really want to win the lottery this week – it would just be too much to mess with. Maybe next week. Now that’s tired.

So I’m thinking that, since my job & my life are actually pretty swell & stress free, perhaps it’s those ole’ devil hormones talking. Can somebody tell me again when I get to be done with that?

I’m too tired to be the Drama Queen. Can I be the Drama Dowager* instead?

*the non-widow variety!

2012 Project 365 – Week Sixteen

How to describe our week? Busy! I had dinner with my friend again on Tuesday (I did not document the burger & ice cream this week) & I had choir practice on Wednesday. And then Dr. M had a ceremony at school last night & didn’t get home until nearly 10:00. For me that’s a lot of activity (ok, you busy moms and pastor’s wives just be quiet now!). But our pictures don’t really reflect the busy-ness. I like that – my P365 post is a calm oasis. Ahh!

Sunday, April 15^th      

Some of you may have seen this saying circulating on Facebook lately. My sister-in-law (who is height challenged) decided that she needed such a shirt for her birthday, so I decided to rise to the challenge. I did have a snafu. Wrong printer setting - oops. I put it on the back of the shirt.

Ok, here you can read it.

I also made her a couple of dishcloths.

Monday, April 16^th   

Dr. M’s early morning moon. It’s a bit blurry, but I love the stone washed denim look of the sky.

When I got home from work I had to get a picture of our debris filled yard – whirligigs everywhere!

Tuesday, April 17^th

Dr. M took some bird pictures today – it was fun to see a goldfinch.

Cardinal.

The weekly squirrel.

               

Wednesday, April 18^th  

We used to see hot air balloons all the time from the balcony of our old apartment, but we rarely see them where live now. A treat!

Thursday, April 19^th   

Campus squirrel (not to be confused with the weekly squirrel).

There was a commemoration of the Doolittle Tokyo Raid near where Dr. M works – he took a lot of pictures of the B-25s & other planes that were flying over campus.

While he was doing that, I was in my car in the parking lot at work listening to my audio book, so I took a picture of the sky too (mine is a little more boring than his – ha!)

Friday, April 20^th     

The State of the Bug – raggedy! There will be some hair cutting soon. It might even be by me. If I do decide to cut my own hair (highly likely at this point – but only an inch or three), I’ll be sure to have Dr. M document the process.

On Friday I wrote a silly post about the geese in the fountain at work. Then I took this picture that documents how terrified the goose is of the plastic orca (see here for a better picture of the orca).

Saturday, April 21^st     

The Saturday meeting of the Board of Directors – they’re quite iridescent today!

Fat fat robin – our birds are so underfed – ha!

Go to Sara’s blog here to see the blogs of all the other Project 365 participants. Have a great week!

Most of our photos are taken with a 12 megapixel Nikon D5000 DSLR, using a 55-200mm zoom lens. This is the camera that Dr. M takes with him most days. He also takes pictures with our old reliable 7 megapixel Canon Powershot A710.  The Bug uses our new Nikon Coolpix S6200 most of the time. If you’re interested in which camera was used for a particular shot, just ask! 

Float in Peace

The Canadians have infiltrated the fountain in front of my office.
Well, there’s just the one – and it’s more floating than infiltrating, per se.

But it does bring a bit of dramatic suspense.
The security guard will be out ANY MOMENT to shoo the interloper away.
ANY MOMENT now – really!

La la la…

Well, maybe he’s going to let the infraction go this one time.

Float in peace my goosey friend. (Never mind the little plastic shark there beside you – it’s not real).

Float in peace.

Empty and Full

[For my more gentle readers, please note: Even I'm mildly offended by this poem. But I'm not very good at self-editing, so there ya go.]

Red Roofs, Marc Chagall, 1954

Empty and Full

I used to feel the tide tug and pull,
the waxing and waning of serenity.

I used to.

In those days I knew that my
body was not my own body
but only a vessel. And I kept that vessel
empty - empty and full of my own creation.
Nowadays, still tied to the moon,
my body is my own body.
The only thing that gushes forth
are these words –
more fragrant than any
monthly excretion.

This is a Magpie Tale.