“All logic and reason escaped me.
Because all I wanted was you.
And I couldn’t bring myself to care.”

And I felt it in my bones. The beat of my heart matched the hammering of your footsteps on the cool concrete. And I listened to your soles crunching the gravel beneath them. In those moments, as you came towards me, I felt free. Open. Like nothing in the world could stop us. Like you were the only thing I would ever need. Like not even oxygen would sustain me. All logic and reason escaped me. Because all I wanted was you. And I couldn’t bring myself to care.

© Sarah Doughty
2018

Loving you set me free.

Conducting the music of her life

Olivia is quite the maestro

Never missing an up beat

Crescendoing past anything life threw at her

Everything is so legato under her masterful baton

Retarding to a stately pace when it was time to rest

The angels give her a standing ovation in her dreams

Image:  blog.oup.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1260-music-notes.png

Along came a spider
An eight legged rider.

In her web, I espied a fly
Other insects came to say goodbye.

The spider's sting operation
Causing pain sensation.

Spidey's silken seduction
Makes no cause for affection.

An intrepid with her labyrinth
Her stealth is her fingerprint.

She never trips in her net
Her web is her bayonet.

She walks and stalks a silky trail
Rigging a web to catch the frail.

Spiders are seen and never heard
They wield a most unlikely sword.

When she was with him, he didn’t care.

When she flew by, he started madly chasing her.

He could be anyone. She was Time.

According to Rose her submisson was inspired by my daughter’s loss of her first top front tooth. “As she gently placed it in the little box we use for the tooth fairy, she said with tears in her eyes, ‘I’m really going to miss being a kid.’ “

“Rose lives in upstate NY with her husband, two kids, and furry companions. She works at a local library where she acts as a clerk and does all the children’s programming, both on and offsite. Currently, she is working on a retelling of “Beauty and the Beast,” which is one of her all-time favorite fairy tales! The main character is based on her grandmother—one of the strongest people she’s ever had the pleasure of knowing in her life. She (along with Rose’s fiery daughter) is her muse and an inspiration to women everywhere. It has been joyous to include some of her…

With Guitar in Hand

for Stephanie

With guitar in hand I observe the green beetles bumbling about,
the way they careen and crash and flail aimlessly, but to a purpose.

Sometimes I attempt one note, only to strike another, or plucking
three strings simultaneously, focus on the discordant one,

which is, of course, me. How do we live the right song?
Which casual arrangement sends us plummeting to the grass,

hearts racing? I recall thinking “this cannot be,” yet could not,
would not, turn away. I bang out a minor seventh, sing a few

words, adjust my arthritic grip. Yesterday I couldn’t form
the chord shapes I desired. Today the hands float along the

fretboard, unimpeded. I wish you were here. I wish
I could shift time signatures with neurotransmissions,

that we were somewhere else, out of the way, alone
but for birds chirping in the branches by the window.

Title: Things We Do for Love
Source:  Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story to the theme “a dog in the daisies.”
Word count:  99 words

Photo by Ian Wetherill on Unsplash

Abra was true to her name – mother of many. I had qualms about breeding her, but since she was the county’s best herder, every farmer wanted one of her pups.

She whelped ten, five males and five females. I named the girls after flowers and the boys after trees. Everyone asked about them. When would they be weaned? How much did I want for them?

I auctioned nine and they passed on the runt, Daisy. I gleefully keep her. Daisy resembled her mother, and she stole my heart. And like her mother, she became the county’s best herder.

_________________________________________

Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Are we ever prepared for the masks?
That fall off people’s faces when least expected.

Are we ever prepared to face the things that haunt us?
To mourn the pieces of ourselves that will never return,
And then to openly embrace them.

Are we ever prepared for our lives to fall apart?
To end up in places we never imagined we’d be.

Are we ever prepared to move forward?
Even it means walking alone.

Are we ever prepared to keep reminding ourselves of the lessons we’ve learned?
To have enough faith to keep starting over,
Andtoleave some spacefor unexpected strength to come through.