confrontation

Love Song

Aside ~ ~ lifeontheskinnybranches ~ Leave a comment

I stand here, on this rock,

Arms outstretched, ready,

Amidst tumultuous sea winds

Carrying voices from afar

I don’t feel safe I am too much I want to leave I call you out I am called out for calling you out

I am enraged I am ashamed

Don’t assign don’t degrade

I hear it all and my heart aches

I called it in to see and to hear

But there is something else

Yet to appear; it seeks an ear

It wants to be known

Will I hear it if I push away

The harsh voices that do harm

Where will they go if they aren’t heard

Crammed back into I am wrong This isn’t the place for this This isn’t the place for that

I called this into being

Can I now cherry-pick what comes my way

Or do I listen and guide

Find new ways of being with the parts that are the hardest to hear

I stand on this rock

My arms outstretched

And I listen again,

And I listen, I listen,

For all.

#evolution #healing

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Starbucks Surrender

Aside ~ ~ lifeontheskinnybranches ~ 7 Comments

That’s perfectly fine.

I’m in no rush.

Go ahead and finish your conversation.

I mean, I’m just a customer in need of service.

There’s four of you behind that counter.

None of you are doing anything job-related.

Does Starbucks employ managers?

I think not.

Unless one of you is one of them.

Wow.

That’s a depressing thought.

I’ll just wait.

Send that Snapchat.

Read that text.

No need to bother yourself.

No need at all.

I’ll just work myself up into a lather,

And when you finally come over to me

And I let all hell loose on you,

You will treat me like I am the problem.

Maybe you’ll even report me to the manager-if-they-do-exist-at-all.

Not worth it.

I’m leaving and I won’t be back.

(Until next time.)

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: rush

Wasteland

Aside ~ ~ lifeontheskinnybranches ~ Leave a comment

What you did to me

The position you put me in

Contaminated my insides

Deposited sludge in my veins

Dark, thick and foul

Could not be contained

A pollutant infesting my waters

Every time I think I’m clean

I feel the slime come again

It catches in the corners

The nooks and crannies of me

And heaviness sets into my bones

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: sludge

Untamed*

Aside ~ ~ lifeontheskinnybranches ~ 4 Comments

I rise today,

All-powerful One

Mark the date and time

For I am done

I wanted to work

So I appeased

To follow my dreams

I scraped my knees

If you really don’t know

Somewhere deep inside

How wrong it has been

Then why did you hide

But this is not about You

You’re just one of Too Many

Time to change the conversation

To solutions, not controversy

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: tame

*I am tired of the news stories re: the Harvey Weinstein “revelations” focusing on who knew what. Why no discussion of legal ramifications? It feels so insane that we hear about these people in power abusing their authority to sexually harass women (and men) and all they get is fired? Or it becomes a business story – how will the company go on? To me, the whole point is being lost. The conversation needs to be this: why does this keep happening and how can we, as a society, take responsibility for a culture that still allows for it and is somehow even supporting and creating it? Finger-pointing to individuals misses the bigger picture. I had to say something to find some sanity in this very dismal repeating story that keeps getting lost in the stories around the story.

A Tea Time Rebellion

Aside ~ ~ lifeontheskinnybranches ~ 3 Comments

“Before you launch into another tirade about how cucumber sandwiches are only to be served sans crust, I ask that you please set your concerns aside just this once in order to provide an empathetic ear to my complaints,” Myrna plaintively, yet forcefully, interjected.

Though her crimson-painted lips were set in a rather firm horizon line uncharacteristic for her features, her flushed cheeks belied her trepidation at having taken such a strong public stance, and she immediately tittered a rather anemic laugh and waved her hand in a vague attempt to dissipate any remaining resonance of what she had just said.

She turned her full attention to the deviled egg on her plate, nodding now and then to maintain the illusion of her part in the conversation at hand.

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: launch

Diminishing Returns

Aside ~ ~ lifeontheskinnybranches ~ 3 Comments

Every time you let anger lead

Every time you pull away

Know there is a cost

Something else is drained

Something in me

Is whittled away, bit by bit

They say that real love is

Unconditional

But it is not a bottomless well

Of forgiveness

There is a finite store

There is an invisible line

And one day,

That amount will be used up

Take care, my love

Chose your battles well

And refill the well of goodness

Between us

Create a surplus of love

From which we can draw

When love is strained by conflict

I am rooting for us

But there is a natural law we can’t fight

Just like no one lives forever

No love survives incessant onslaught without damage

Inspired by The Daily Post Daily Word Prompt: finite