My Cardboard Balcony

All right! So what did I do this week, the first week of being in my thirties?! Weeeellllll... I wrote multiple episodes of audio files for an original character I created with a friend. I have gone to the gym three days a week for the past three weeks. I focused on nerdy stuff, mostly emphasizing Star Wars. I got to enjoy family time and watched Yesterday, that film about the Beatles and such. I got to jam with my best bud over the weekend, creating new music and coolness. I connected with my future teaching colleagues at the school I'll be working at starting in late August. I updated this blog (of course). I tried to play along to a scammer's email - they didn't take the bait. I enjoyed some quality time with my cat and the wifey. Speaking of the wifey, I also took some headshots of her and felt rather accomplished as a photographer. Later, I'll be doing some editing for a dear friend, working to self-publish that novel of mine by August 20th, a...

Almost July by Belinda Roddie June's tailpipes soon gave way to fireworks. How very illegal!

The Empty Jeep by Belinda Roddie The empty jeep had eyes and ears and lips so it could see me, hear me, and kiss me without consent, as I let worry slip across my shoulders as I braved debris and speed bumps to park at my dreary home. It seemed so weary, that automobile, and while I could rest my exhausted bones, that carcass of fiberglass and worn steel could never sleep, or dream, or wake refreshed, stretching its limbs to meet the light of day like warm fingers across its puckered flesh. No, vehicles must run until they're gray, until they cannot move another mile. How can I sympathize with jeeps, meanwhile?

Sometimes when I'm sitting here, minding my own business, tempted to whistle the blues - and I'm ignoring the orange face on TV and the other horrendous news - my brain comes up with: "Hey, remember that time when you put a picture up of Grumpy Cat the day she died and played audio of, 'Amazing Grace,' performed on the bagpipes in the background as a tribute to her?" ...Yeah, that was pretty great.

A.I. Market by Belinda Roddie choose your robot choose its name choose its skin color and hair color choose the shape of its eyes, the hue of its eyes, the clarity of its eyes, the emotion in its eyes choose its wardrobe (it'll wear the same thing every fucking day) choose its job choose its chores choose its schedule draw everything up on paper then expect it to memorize everything like the metal sponge it is choose its room give it a bed (not a comfortable one why would it need that?) make it dance make it sing make it cook and definitely make it clean make it promise you that you're worth something while it sits like a lump in a small space hoping that you have good dreams