My Cardboard Balcony

This week has been particularly rough. More difficult time with my students. More difficult time getting my work done. Not as inspired. Fighting a cold. Overall anxious about the political landscape. This election is eating me alive mentally. At least Halloween was good. I was a Hobbit. My name was Bramblerose Brambleburr of Bindale Wood. Seeing as this was a particularly rough week and today was a particularly rough day, I figured introspection can be brief and rest can be more important at this moment. In the end, I can't have a clear mind without self-care. Soon, I have to really plunge into reality, nose first, and re-surface with something in both my hands. We'll see if an application for a teaching credential program is one of them. Maybe a handful of query letters to publishing houses for my novel. But for now, sleep. Good old-fashioned subconscious state, REM paranoid laced with calm relaxation and oh God I'm so tired I'm getting more poetic I'll stop ri...

Passion's Order by Belinda Roddie A captain and his sergeant dreamt of a state That dipped sinners in gold with no held debate And they said, as they kissed each other’s skin, “Tonight we begin.” The president was thrown from the seventeenth floor Into seven thousand pairs of arms that bore Him into the shadows both Hellish and serene. The two laid the scene, their patience thin. “Tonight, we win.” For twenty-five years, they ruled their new state But they both grew psychotic from romance and hate For in their reign they were forced to separate To keep every matter straight. The captain laid his hands upon her chin. “Tonight, we give in.” Their passion was strong, but the council it tore The uniforms and the badges they wore Could not sustain the weary people for long They desired a new song, to make gold from tin. So the lovers gave in. The sergeant grew ill from his lover’s bad state For only on him could he concentrate, And...

"Stand guard. I'll go in through the window." But she couldn't fit. Her shoulders were too wide. She lifted herself up from the opened frame and stretched, sighing in exasperation. "Okay, then. I'll stand guard, and you go in through the window." "Are you kidding me? I'm bigger than you." "Okay, maybe you're rounder...but you're more pliable!" "You're saying I'm squishy?" "Yes, I'm saying you're squishy! I'm not! Help me out, will you?"