My Cardboard Balcony

Whew! Another busy week. Got to go to a professional development day all the way in Lindsay, California (yes, that is a real town. With orange orchards...and Confederate flags. Oof) with my principal and my school's band director. Now I'm in Scotts Valley for another Halloween party hosted by my in-laws: Tim Burton-themed, and very much at risk of a power outage thanks to PG&E abetting the climate change/wildfire apocalypse! Welcome to the new age, to the new age! Anyway, as y'all know by now, I love Halloween, and I'll be enjoying myself. Want a hint for my Halloween costume? Here ya go: And remember: Tim Burton-themed. So yeah. I'm going to enjoy this final week of October, and I'm hoping that autumn weather will remember it exists and our monopoly utility in Northern California will stop doing stupid bullshit like intermittently cutting off our power while still accidentally igniting wildfires due to poor equipment and clearing. Gotta love t...

Haunted Road Rage by Belinda Roddie The highway to Visalia contains spooky ghosts. And slow trucks.

I Have Not Slept by Belinda Roddie I have not slept since I have arrived here in purgatory, arms outstretched as waves of limbo's atonement has purged my fear of consequences from the weary saved remnants of my flesh. Do not tempt me, God, to forget foolish conversations lost in cava and whiskey in hotel pods that birth distilled regret at a high cost for my sanity. Fear thee well, demons, who creep across my cerebral cortex, riddled with holes from draughts of booze and sins that remind me of long lost innocence. Adieu, my love, of a conquest most foul that separated logic from its cowl.

What If by Belinda Roddie You wanted to kiss me - you said so yourself that you always wondered what I'd taste like. I can guarantee you my breath was built to ward off vampires, yet you told me that you wouldn't have minded it. Still, I declined, as I wasn't willing to travel to an alternative universe, where we held hands in high school after you karate chopped your way into my heart one warm, suburban day in the black box theater while I wrote bad poetry and even worse songs.