Goodbye

I went to bed early and woke up standing next to Death.

“What happened?” I asked. My body laid next to my husband, still asleep, oblivious that I was gone.

Death said, “It was your time to go.”

“I don’t get to say goodbye?”

“You can if you like.”

I floated through the air to the other side of the bed. “I love you. I’m sorry.”

And then I was gone.

~*~

On some nights, after I’ve settled into bed and turned off the light, I have sad thoughts. This is one of them.

Thank you for reading.

SoundCloud: S. M. Saves
Twitter: @sm_saves

Driving on Snow

Last night, mom and I ordered Chinese food for carryout. Outside it was dark. No light from neighboring houses except an oddly placed lamppost at the end of a driveway. The street was covered in the slush from a previous snow.

“You sure you want to go out?” I asked. Mom hated driving on snow.

She shrugged.

I drove us through the quiet downtown as fresh snow fell. While we waited for our order, we perused the tables at a craft show next door displaying quilts and ribbons, chapbooks with mixed media covers, incense and potpourri.

I turned to my mom and said, “You know dad really misses you.”

I woke up before I could hear her reply.

(A 3 AM dream I posted on Twitter, July 23rd, 2020).

~*~

SoundCloud: S. M. Saves
Twitter: @sm_saves

Sunday Mornings

Sunday mornings
simple embroideries
Breaking fast on the front porch
as morning sun breaks through
white gossamer sheers
Admiring the green
growing between bricks
of a one hundred year old road.

~*~

Our house has a glassed in front porch which I’ve been meaning to spend more time on. Last weekend, we installed curtain rods and sheer white curtains for added privacy and coziness. The cats enjoy the sun and the Mister and I enjoy our meals out there.

SoundCloud: S. M. Saves
Twitter: @sm_saves

May/June 2020 Reads

It’s July 1st!

Here’s what I’ve been reading May through June:

My best laid plans of reading Ready Player One fell apart when a friend of mine asked if I would be willing to read Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha Trilogy with her. Book club for two? Yes, please!

The trilogy kicks off with Shadow and Bone. It’s easy to slip into — Alina Starkov is your nobody-who-becomes-somebody heroine when, while her regiment is under attack, her dormant powers unleash in the nick of time to save her and her love interest, Mal.

Side note: I think Mal is an “ok” love interest, a bit flaky in the beginning. My friend hates him with a passion. To me, he’s kind of like the Peeta to Katniss in The Hunger Games. You want to like him but you also kind of hope he gets friend-zoned and she’ll ends up with Gale. End side note.

This leads to her leaving the front lines to train as a Grisha, practitioners of the Small Science who are lead by a man known simply as the Darkling (who quickly becomes the third corner of the Shadow and Bone love triangle, because of course there has to be a guilty pleasure love triangle).

We started book two — Siege and Storm — in June and are about halfway through. Additional characters are added which keeps things fresh. There’s a couple bombshells too. My friend still hates Mal (“forever and always” is the update I received). There’s still a book and a half to go, so there’s hope. 🙂

I took a bit of a break from ReadMeSpeakMe but read Marc Tizura’s “A Room with a Clock” — well crafted poem with a chilling end. (Author name link will take you to Marc’s recording. Title link will take you the typed version for reading.)

In other readings, I stumbled across The Poetry of Science blog. It’s run by Sam Illingworth who  is working to build a bridge between scientists and non-scientists through poetry. I recommend reading his poem “Trees of (Urban) Life“. At the end, he talks about the research that inspired the poem.

Read anything good over the last two months? Let me know!

~*~

SoundCloud: S. M. Saves
Twitter: @sm_saves

Ode to the Last Page

At last we’ve arrived —
the final page.
The first, a year away,
beginning with the words
“no one ever leaves”
and ending with these.
Pages that have seen
many cups of tea
and stains from colored pens;
Rainy, sunny, snowy grey,
bemoaned Mondays
and second comings;
Scribbles and snippets,
crossed out verses;
Stories in ten words,
poems from prompt words;
Some held to the light,
others extinguished without a gasp.
As the back cover closes
on this last page,
there is no ending.
Only a bridge
to the next first page.

~*~

This was written on the final page of my black-covered travel notebook (04/15/19 – 03/06/20) and was meant to be my O post for the A to Z Challenge. However, I forgot about it and wrote the haiku “Oasis” instead.

The line “No One Ever Leaves” was the rough draft title for my N post from last years A to Z Challenge that resulted in the short story, “Never There.”

Thank you for reading.

SoundCloud: S. M. Saves
Twitter: @sm_saves

~*~