Thursday, August 31, 2017

Wings

 Today's prompt was "But you didn't have wings yesterday, right?" As I was finishing writing this I realized that it mght be about food. :)

But you didn't have wings yesterday, right?
Hm, let me think about that.
Have I ever had wings?
I do like to fly.

If I had wings,
Where could I go?
How fast could I get there?
And would I have to come back?

Hopefully this prompt wasn’t about food.
But you didn't have wings yesterday, right?
Hm, let me think about that.
Have I ever had wings?
I do like to fly.

If I had wings,
Where could I go?
How fast could I get there?
And would I have to come back?

Hopefully this prompt wasn’t about food.

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

To Lie ot not to lie, that is the question

Tonight's prompt was "Is this one of those times I'm supposed to lie?"

Is this one of those times I’m supposed to lie?
Tell me the truth now.
Hm, how do I know I can believe you?

Is this one of those times when the truth might hurt?
Or get me into trouble?
Or cause too much pain?
Tell me the truth now.
Don’t lie just to make me feel better.

Is this one of those times when I’m better off not answering?
And my silence will either be the right answer
Or the wrong answer
But at least I didn’t say it.
Tell me the truth now,
Not answering won’t help.

Is this one of those times when I should know what to do?
And if I don’t know then I am the problem?

Harsh.

Truth or dare
Truth or a lie.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I swear,
Sometimes I just don’t think I know
what to say,
how to say it,
what the truth is,
or the wrong answer comes out before I think of the right one.

Is this one of those times I’m supposed to lie?
If so, I don’t want to.
I don’t like being told what to do.
And that is no lie.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

12 Bar Blues Fall Back

I tried to write something tongue in cheek, i.e., possibly funny, about trying to write. For kicks I threw in a writing prompt inspired verse towards the end. It's the one that doesn't fit in. It's a song. 12 bar blues.

When all else fails just write the blues
Twelve bars, what’ve you got to lose.
Doesn’t have to be sad
Doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad.

I got up this morning, had to go to work
I got up this morning, had to go to work
Got there and my friend was out
What a jerk.

I had to cover all day long cause she was out
Had to cover all day long cause she was out.
I know she wasn’t really sick
And that really pissed me off..

When all else fails I just write the blues.
When all else fails I sit and write the blues
It isn’t always sad, it isn’t always bad,
It’s just my words.

I went for a run, set a new PR
I went for a run, set a new PR
Remembered to stretch so I wouldn’t get stiff
About time.

I make up some verses that make no sense at all
I make up some verses that don’t make sense at all.
But that doesn’t matter
cause no one’s gonna listen anyhow.

I got a new job, start in around two weeks
I got a new job, start in around two weeks
That means I need to clean my desk
And pack my stuff up, geez.

I tried to write a funny song, but it didn’t work out well
I tried to write a funny song but it didn’t come out too well
The words seem trite
and the melody’s so bad it smells.

I’m sorry that I missed it, I’m stuck in ‘74.
Sorry that I missed it, I’m stuck in 74
A year out of high school
And college had me bored.

Twelve bar blues, I can make up lines all night
Twelve bar blues, I could sing this song all night.
I know it sucks
But I just need to write

Friday, August 25, 2017

Crazy Snippets

Tonight's writing prompt which seems grammatically incorrect, "I forgot her on accident."

Am I crazy?
Aren’t we all?
To some extent, probably.
What’s normal anyway?

I forgot her by accident
But maybe it was on purpose
My memory is kind of foggy
And I’m not sure it matters anyway.

Writing prompts
are a trigger to get started
Or you could say
Writing (noun)
prompts (action verb)
thoughts.

Maybe I am a bit crazy,
full of cracks as flaws,
unsound.
Or maybe the kind of crazy
that lacks
thought or reason.
Or crazy
as in
passionate.

I don’t see any of those as a flaw.
They all sound human to me.
So if you want to call me crazy,
Thank you.

And maybe I forgot her by accident
or on purpose,
And we are both too crazy
or normal
to care.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

I Was Kind of Hoping

This is a writing prompt, not real life. Maybe shades of my life? Maybe snippets from years of people watching and coffee shop eavesdropping? 
The prompt: "I was kind of hoping that you're just fall in love with me."

I was kind of hoping
“I was kind of hoping
That he would just fall in love with me,”
She said.
But he fell in love with someone else
And I feel like
I have wasted my time
Wishing, hinting, hoping
for something that wasn’t there.
And I knew it
but kept on dreaming,
Wishing it were so
while I knew it wasn’t
And now I know for sure
it never will be,
“Why couldn’t he fall in love with me
The way I fell in love with him?”
“How can I feel it and he can’t?”
They say it comes down to chemistry.
Obviously, I do as well with life chemistry
as I did with the high school class,
Liked the experiments,
Didn’t get the concepts well enough
To do more than barely make the grade.
“I was kind of hoping
That he would just fall in love with me.”
Hope springs eternal
But hoping doesn’t make it so.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Life is uncertain

Life is uncertain.
Age is certain.
The earth keeps spinning
and revolving.
And so it goes,
Time moves on.
We grow older,
and our lives go in directions
we might not have planned.
Every day we change a little,
What is going on in our lives changes a little.
So subtle
we might not notice.

Life gets in the way
is the phrase we sometimes hear
when the best laid plans
get altered
by circumstances beyond our control.
So why is it
that so many people
can’t make a decision
or commitment
because life is uncertain.
That’s the whole point of life.
We change.
We age.
We move forward as the earth spins on an axis
and revolves around the sun.
We’re passengers,
not the center of the orbit.
If our trajectory changes,
life goes on.
That’s the fun of being human
and alive.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

The packers are here

The packers are here,
With their
Rolls of paper,
Boxes,
And forms.
Two women packing up
Cups, dishes, silverware.
Clothing, linens,
Hats, coats
Boots, shows,
Jewelry,
Books,
Tvs, a computer.
Drawers and boxes full of
Old greeting cards and letters,
Photographs,
Baby clothes,
Lockets of hair.
Scraps of paper,

The packers are here
Boxing up memories
Boxing up stories
Boxing up feelings,
Wrapping them carefully
The way packers do.
Crinkling sounds signal another item being saved
The sound of tape
As another box is filled.
So many things
After so many year.

Tomorrow the movers come
To load the boxes and furniture onto a truck
To deliver them to
A new home.
Where the old will be unpacked
And a new life will start.
Ending and beginning.
Moving is it’s own circle of life.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Flight Delay

Another thunderstorm.
Another few hours in an airport.
And the debate begins,
Get food,
Wait until I land,
Walk around
Sit still and patiently wait.
All of the above.

A plan.
Walk,
check in at gate,
eat, maybe.
Repeat until boarding begins.

Two hour delay.
No plane at the gate,
routed to Indy due to weather.
Moved us to another gate that actually has a plane
empty
sitting
waiting to take us.
Zero visibility
so that’s okay
that we haven’t boarded yet.
I’d rather wait
in the airport.
There is no way I want to take off
in this weather.
Lightning
Thunder
Wind
I wonder if our bags are on the tarmac.
Better not to think of that.
Instead I watch CNN
After five minutes of that
I need a break.
Back to the plan.

Monday, August 14, 2017

Seriously

It’s Monday and we had our ukulele class at the Cordova Branch Library. Just about at the end, I asked for a song idea so we could practice chord changes. One of our six year olds said, “Seriously?” She claimed she was making a comment not giving me a song idea, but I used it anyway. Unfortunately her brother may use the chorus to torment her later.
Rough recording. It's a zipper song, so it's okay if the lyrics change every time I sing it.

Seriously, she said
That song’s stuck in my head.
And if you sing it anymore,
I’m gonna walk right out that door.

I never liked that song
And you sing the words all wrong.
I know you’re doing it on purpose
Just to get on my last nerves.

You keep playing the same chords
I’m amazed you aren’t bored.
Don’t you have anything better to do
Like maybe learn something new

Seriously, she said
That song’s stuck in my head.
And if you sing it anymore,
I’m gonna walk right out that door.

It’s like the song that never ends
It just goes on and on my friends
Or Michael Finnegan
When it ends it begins again

Seriously, she said
That song’s stuck in my head.
And if you sing it anymore,
I’m gonna walk right out that door.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

I have lived so long

A song for my mom.
It's not done but close enough to share.

I’ve been married for sixty-six years,
Sixty-six mostly happy years.
Sometimes I feel like I’m spinning my wheels
Down a one lane road called time.

I remember dead relatives and friends,
I hear their voices in my head
But I can’t remember what you just said
And that makes me so sad.

I have lived so long,
I once felt so strong
Like I controlled
My own destiny.

I watch my husband shuffle around
He recently slowed down
He’s almost as slow as me
Yeah, but at least he’s on his feet

We read the papers every day
And we watch the news
We sometimes have different points of view
But he knows I’m always right
So he doesn’t put up much of a fight.

I have lived so long,
I once felt so strong
Like I controlled
My own destiny.

I have always loved my kids
Despite some of the things they said and did
And what I might have said to them
Yeah, I sometimes went too far.
I hope I didn’t cause too may scars.

Now I feel like I’m on a steady march
To the point where by death do we part
But that’s all right with me
Yeah, that’s all right with me.

I have lived so long,
I am so strong
I controlled
My own destiny.

Love that good old rock and roll
It’s good for the soul
Yeah still love that rock and roll
Uh huh,