My Cardboard Balcony

I'm Coming Home by Belinda Roddie I'm coming home at last - yes, this is it! I'm coming home just in time. We will be married in the morning, our hair lit by sunrise. We will marry by the sea. We will wear white and gray and purple, too, the salt stinging our skin as we dance in the sand, our bare feet soaking up the blue of Poseidon's kingdom. Yes, love, within the hour, I will be right by your side and hold you close for the first time in years, all those years when you thought of me and cried, and now I'm here at to dry your endless tears. I'm coming home at last, although you may be confused because I don't look the same.

My, has OneWord been erratic! No update on the website today, either!

All By Myself by Belinda Roddie lying naked on top of the covers I am exposed to wandering hands and wandering feet finding every bump and divot on the road of my skin my personal topography eroded by personal touch I am alone and afraid even when you are here even when your breath stings the rims of my nostrils I am alone and afraid feeling the June breeze against my nipples I hope to God that you won't come home tonight that you'll be too drunk to find your keys or too smitten with the bartender to leave before five AM the calm is uncommon I embrace the reality of silence I am alone now but not afraid it makes a world of difference when you aren't here to stifle my own flesh I am alone now but not afraid

Two, three, four butterflies settling on flower stems and drinking their blood supply. Look at those beautiful, ravenous beasts! So fragile, and yet such a vibrant display. Now they flutter to the window and unfold their wings. You can see the fake eyes from the other side of the room. Are they watching you or not? Somehow, you're having a difficult time discerning reality from illusion.

The Great Adventure by Belinda Roddie Come with me to the mystical land of gas stations and supermarkets, where the slurpies are o'erflowing, and you can get three candy bars for the price of one. Take my hand, and I will lead you to neon OPEN signs and red counters where a fat white guy with a neckbeard will try to flirt with you as you ask for a bag to carry your junk food. Maybe, if we're lucky, they'll have doughnuts, too. Magical doughnuts! Home will never seem the same again after we emerge from our wonderland of cheap sugar and caffeine, our hearts racing only because we consumed an excessive amount of fifty cent coffee. Yes, in the kingdom of scratch tickets and cigarettes, we'll be safe from the horrors of the real world, where God forbid, there might be trees growing taller than we are, and waaaaaay too much oxygen.

No update on the OneWord website today. It's been mighty spotty lately. Oh, well!

I Was Standing Beneath Olympus by Belinda Roddie and gold flakes were buried beneath my cuticles and in my hair their sheen sent fish scattering in the rivers full of silver while the bronzed jaw of Apollo shone against the sun as he rode his chariot into the clouds setting them on fire turning rain into steam making the world his cauldron