Thursday, June 7, 2012

dVerse prompt: Where in the World

Alien

The sky in Grove Hill is just
weird.
It makes me feel
funny
uncomforatble
ready to fight.

The colors in the sunset are not
real.
The snot string clouds are not
 real.

I spend my weekends with you and then I
leave.
I travel 200 miles where my life is not?
real.
Half-way home I drive through
Grove Hill.
Where the sky is
weird.

heidi
June 7, 2012

Tonight's poem is my submission for dVerse Meeting in the Bar: "Where in the World?" http://dversepoets.com/ I have been in an unusually non-science fiction mood lately. So unlike me...hopefully I can snap out of it before I have to surrender my Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dr. Who fan club memberships. Although, seriously, what's the deal with the Sky in Clarke County?

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

FWF Submission: Up the Creek

Up the Creek

She was in kindergarten in an all girl school. This was the seventies, and Katie loved everything about school except for getting up in the morning. Lately, the fun thing was to lean over and look under the partition into the next stall while you were in the restroom. That way, you didn't have to stop your conversation with your friend just because you had to go. It was also a fun and interesting way to meet new friends when both kindergarten classes were in the bathroom at the same time. There was an etiquette for initiating a conversation. You were supposed to stick your hand under the shared wall of the stall and ask "who's that?" The other girl would answer and you would look and say hey and life was good. If there was no answer, then you should look immediately, because this was still basically a public restroom and those could be tricky. Your friend could be in trouble and was depending on you to save her!

That day was like any other day. There was a break, she went to the bathroom with the rest of the class. She waited towards the end of the line. (She liked the ends, they were more special.) She entered her stall. She got to business. She looked down and saw shoes next to her. These were different shoes. She began protocol. Pointing, she asked "Who's that?", but there was no answer. She asked again, and again, no answer. Clearly, someone was in trouble. Katie was a very helpful girl and knew what she had to do. She looked under the stall "Who's in here?"

It was a woman. A woman she did not know. A woman with blond hair in a tight flip and a shocked expression. Katie sat back. She wanted to giggle and she wanted to throw up. She was very still and waited until she was sure that it was time for her mom to come get her. She was going to get in trouble with her teacher if she didn't leave the bathroom. She walked out and to the sinks. There was the woman.

"You! It was you!"

Katie ran. She ran and ran and ran and ran and ran. She ran all the way to her classroom and sat down quietly in her seat.

Someone came to the classroom and took her teacher out. When Mrs. May came back, she was not happy.

"Miss Wills has said that someone peeped on her while she was in the bathroom. Who did it?"

Peeped! Katie didn't peep! She looked, it was different. If Miss Wills was in trouble, Katie would have been a hero. What should she do? Katie decided. She was going to keep quiet. If she was discovered, then she would probably cry and that would be bad, so keeping quiet was a good idea.

The classroom clocked ticked. Mrs May said "we are going to wait until someone confesses and apologizes to Miss Wills."

There was no way Katie was apologizing; Miss Wills had ugly hair. The clock kept ticking. Katie thought that she may cry soon and be discovered.

Evie raised her hand. "Sarah and I looked under the wall." "Thank you Evie. Will you and Sarah come with me?"

Katie watched them go. Miss Wills would know that it wasn't Evie and Sarah. She did have ugly hair, but she had good eyes.

Mrs. May brought Evie and Sarah back.  "Evie and Sarah have apologized. They are very brave. I expect that no one will look under the stall doors and walls again."

Katie had no idea what had happened. She was free. All she had to do was avoid Miss Wills.

In second grade, Katie met her new teacher, Miss Wills.

heidi
June 4, 2012


This is my first blog post in response to Kellie Elmore's Free Write Friday (FWF). For those of you who are unfamiliar with Free Write Friday, you can get more information here http://kellieelmore.com/free-write-friday/. I have tweeted some micropoems in response to a FWF prompt. This is the prompt for this story:

O.k., I know you have all heard that old saying, “…up shit creek without a paddle”, right? (Or maybe it’s just a southern thing, I don’t know.) Well, if you haven’t let me just break it down for ya. We have all been in a mess, a pickle, in a …tight spot, right? When times were hard and you couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, hence…up shit creek without a paddle. Often times we are able to look back on those situations and find humor, a lesson learned or just realize that it really wasn’t as bad as we thought…or maybe it was but you survived. Some great stories can almost always be found from these…ripples in life and for FWF, I’d like you to share them. Be poetic, be humorous, be inspirational…just don’t forget to be real, raw and most importantly, just write! You know what to do.


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Better

Better

Never satisfied.
Never good enough.
Strive for excellence-perfection,
there is always room for improvement.
You must always be better.
You can always do better.
The best is the only thing that is
             acceptable.

-heidi

originally written 8/2000

I originally wrote this as part of an developmental profile of myself for a school project. It made me uncomfortable then and it makes me uncomfortable now. (maybe even more uncomfortable now) I am posting this today and linking it to dverse Open Link Night. I think if this poem teaches me nothing else, it does let me know that I should never volunteer to coach any of my kids' team sports. Thanks for visiting!

Monday, June 4, 2012

dverse prompt: work

My Work

I guess my workday begins
at 6:00am.
A hard little body plops on me
with a
"Get up Mommy" or
"Hi sweetie" or
"Mommy, get up, I'm hungry"

Another warm, smaller, body has climbed
in beside me
sometime in the night.

"Okay baby, don't wake your brother."
or, if I'm honest,
"Please, sweetie, let Mommy sleep a few minutes more,
and please don't wake your brother."

Get up, feed them, clothe them, watch them, love them
keep them safe.
Watch them create chaos where I am trying to create order.
Wonder what have I gotten myself into.
Laugh at their silliness.
Worry about them, soothe their wounds, love them.
Lose my temper, yell, cry, worry that I have scarred them for life.
Love them.
Bathe them, put them to bed. Try to create some order, fall further behind.
Wonder what in the hell I have gotten myself into.
Feel inept.
Feel scared.
Love them.
Try to sleep, always trying to listen for them.

My workday started almost six years ago, and will never end.
My work is to love them.

heidi
June 4, 2012

This is my first try at a dversepoets prompt. (dversepoets.com) I have been tweeting micropoems on Twitter in my absence from here (follow me @bigrthanlasagna) and discovered them there. However,  I missed the deadline, of course, so I can't submit it to dverse. In a pure nod to Pollyanna, I am glad for the idea. Hope you like it and I hope that this helps get me back here. I miss my big lasagna!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

One Day On the Bus: Another Look at India

Another Look at India

     You know that this whole experiment was a mistake. It's absolutley bewildering how he thought that you could make it in the real world. You didn't even have to volunteer to come home. He told you to. He commanded, and you return like the good little appliance you are. Shit, you don't even get dog rating, do you? You're like one of those little remote control cars, and now you're going back. You know he's going to shut you down.Why are you doing this? You do have a brain. You know you do...it's metallic. What's the use? You have to go home because you don't like it out here. You miss him. You miss the lab. You don't fit in here. Go home. At least you'll have some happiness before he shuts you down.

heidi

Friday, March 9, 2012

One Day On a Bus: Charlie, the Bus Driver

Charlie, The Bus Driver

     Jesus! Did that bitch go over the freakin' deep end or what? No woman does that to Charlie Hicks and gets away with it! He'll teach her like he used to teach Em before she got in with those lesbo-libbers and ran off. Although Em didn't know how to sock ya' one like this broad. Charlie though that he could come to respect a woman like that India Bellegraves. She even had a strong sounding name. India. Yeah, he could get to like that. It all took him by surprise, though. He would always trip one every now and then. Maybe he had been tripping them a little more since Em had made like a tree. But still, that was no excuse to haul off and hit him like that. How did she even know that he'd done it? Probably because the little lady had a brain or two in her head. Maybe it was time for Charlie to expand his horizons. God knows that Em was always spoutin' off that kind of manure at him. Maybe he's just like this little librarian out. He would still have to punish her first, but maybe afterwards, they could go for a beer or something. Yeah, he'd do just that. Just as soon as he got out of the hospital.

heidi.

My most favorite of this series. I want to try to write him again. He's  awful.

Friday, November 4, 2011

One Day On a Bus:The "Star Trek" Effect

The Star Trek Effect

     Dr. Edward Graves had always been an outcast, mostly because he was very, very shy. When he was forty, he saw an episode of Star Trek where this genus had built himself a female companion. Ignoring, the unhappy ending, he figured that that was probably a good idea, considering that, he too, was a genus, and that human females intimidated him. If he were to build one, he would know that there would be nothing to be afraid of. He was wrong. Obviously, there had been some problems in the small town where he had sent India to live (to see if she would fit in). She had been an outcast too. It also seemed as if she were in serious physical danger. Now, she was on the phone doing something she had never done before. She was crying. She was very confused; the plastic in her nose was broken; she missed him. He had told her that she would have to be shut down if she became violent. But that was before she left. Now she sounded so helpless. The bus driver had tripped her, and she had been humiliated. She was real, at least to him. Could he really kill her?

I apologize for the break. Here is the next installment of "One Day On a Bus". Please enjoy and feel free to share.

Thanks for reading!

heidi

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Brkn Kybard

Brkn Kybard

iii cam iin t my dsk t writ and fnd that my swtiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipiiiiiiiiiiiis had bn in my ffic.
nw iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'm miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing lttrs and my iiiiiiiiiiiiii sticks.

is iiiiiiiit wtiiiiiting that's hard....r is it parnting?

Whr's my thr kybard???????

h.

9/17/11

Friday, September 16, 2011

One Day On A Bus: Midge

Midge

     Answer the damn phone, Shirley. Come on. You thought that the shoot-out you saw at the Piggley-Wiggley was hot snot waittill you...Shirl? Girl, did I wake you up? God, I am so sorry. I just had something on my mind that was a buggin' me...do you want me to let you go? I could always call Belinda Jo. Are you sure? I didn't interrupt anything, did I? Woman! Don't you tell me that you have got Mary McFarber's husband Burt over there. I don't wanna hear it! I am a good woman. I only called you to tell you what happened to me today that was very peculiar, but if you would rather do other things, well, then that's fine with me. What? I'm not bothering you though, am I? Good. Well listen to this. You know that new librarian, India Bellegraves, right? Well we were on the same bus today...the one from midtown. I was at the Shoe Shanty, and I got Harv the most adorable pair of bunny slippers on sale there today. They are so funny! They're...what? Oh! Yeah! Well anyway, I was trying to be sociable, you know I always did feel so sorry for the poor girl with no friends and all, but she wouldn't even look at me, and when I practically forced her to talk to me, well! You would not believe how rude she was. I was so offended.  We come to the stop and when she went to get out, you know Charlie Hicks, Em's ex? yeah, well he's drivin' the bus, and India and I go to get off...did I tell you that she lives in Bessie's boardin' house up the block from me? Me either! Anyway, so we're gettin' off, and you know what a.....a...well you know, unpleasant man Charlie is, well, he did something, and tripped her. I can't figure out how he did it, but she fell down the stairs into this puddle. You are not going to believe this next part...actual smoke comes up from where her face is in the puddle, and she stands up and brushes...I was on the stairs...Yes! This has a point. Patience is a virtue, Shirley, dear. Miss Bellegraves walks past me, and I smelled that smell that your cars get when something has broken in your engine on a rainy day, and she looks at him, and she SMILES, and then she punched him out. Then, like nothing happened at all, she just gets out and goes home, and I think, that she is plannin' on movin' out, because there's a van down at Bessie's and the only other boarder she has is Frank the deputy, and you now he's not goin' anywhere since the sheriff died in that hunting accident with him last year. Now, don't you think that's  suspicious? What? What do you mean you don't care? I thought it was important, and interesting...I asked you if you'd rather not talk. What? Fine. I don't have to take this from you miss...hello? Bitch. Don't say goodbye. you know, I wonder what Mary McFarber's doin' right about now, and I wonder if she'd like to hear something interesting.

heidi

This is the second in the "One Day On A Bus Series". I have had trouble with Midge's voice. She sounds like a couple of different people to me. I tend to go back and forth on what she is like and it shows in here.  Although, it was FUN to write. There are some people that I have introduced that I never wrote a piece for, that I think I want to write for now. I wonder how they would fit in? Maybe this will go on a little longer than I had planned. hhmmmm....

Anyway, we have reached another anniversary. This marks the beginning of the fourth week for the lasagna. Thanks for reading, and for the comments and reactions!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

The River

The River

I stand in the river of
my actions and it drips,
drips, drips down and I
doubt if I was right, but
then I stop.
Because I know I was right,
right, right, and that I hav
                                       e
                                     don
                                    e no w
                                      ron
                                        g

                                        I
                                       sit
                                     and I
                                       thi
                                         n

                                         k
                                       and
                                      I lis
                                        ten
                                          t

                                          o
                                        my t
                                      hought
                                        s as
                                           t

                                           h
                                         ey d
                                        rip, d
                                          rip,
                                            d
                                               r
                                                  ip, drip, drip,
                                              drip, drip, drip, 
                                                   drip, drip,
                                                       drip.

heidi

originally written around 1990.

I really like this one. I liked (and I still do I guess) to play with the way the poem looks. I also was really into the sound of the words together, so sometimes I wasn't really after the meaning.  This one does have a story, that was really in line with a lot of stuff that I was writing at the time. It makes me smile. I am working on a new immediate story that I will probably post as soon as it's finished. Look out tomorrow for the second part of "One Day On A Bus". Thanks for reading!