Alarm sounding, I blindly reach out and slap at the air. After several attempts at muting the screeching beast, I make contact and am met with beautiful silence.

I am the creator of my day, the decision maker, and yet my brain takes the reigns and breaks the silence, “Your co-workers will think you’re disgusting if you wear your hair up again because you don’t feel like showering.” I flinch in ...

There are days where the temperature is perfect— where the sun shines even as rain falls.

The earth is warm to the touch and the rain ever so slightly cools, leaving an upwards crawling fog against the earth where the elements combine and rise.

We are outside enjoying the sun. As rain drops begin to fall, we clasp hands, watching them play and listening to the squeals and laughter of our three...

She danced in the kitchen while the radio played her song

Belting out lyrics, whether right or wrong.

She purchased hats, all brand new

To give away to disadvantaged youth.

For friends, she’d cook and she’d bake

A healing salve, she would make.

Her laughter she’d share

As if she lived without a care.

You’re not enough, you’re to blame

They’d criticize and harangue.

So, she shrugged and t...

I’ve spent years in the past, lacking a foundation

The wind picking me up and battering me against everything in my path

I slam into relationships and friendships alike

I try to plant roots in them

But they are not me.

If every person you meet is a potential friend, you lose yourself further

Not everyone is for each other

The desire to give and please, to be liked, no— admired

Leaves me routin...

“Is it morning?”

Not yet, it’s 3 am, it’s sleep time still.

“Can I go downdairs?”

It’s 5 am, let’s rest a little longer.

“Mom, will you snuggle me?”

“Mom, I’m hungry.

“I don’t know what to eat.”

“Can you fix this for me?”

“Can I have a cookie?”

“Snuggle me, Mummy!”

“Can we go outside?”

“Can you help me zip?”

“I need a bandaid and a kiss!”

Let’s go inside, it’s time to make dinner!

“I don’t li...

A ghost has visited me

in the morning around three.

The memories she shared

she claimed would set me free.

My eyes welled with tears

my soul filled with new fears.

Agony filled my very core

with wails awakening my husband’s sleeping ears.

Now that I know this ghost is here

I cannot make her disappear.

Her weekly reveals

reverberate everywhere.

For she is me

and we

are tied to one anothe...

I wake with an ache in my joints and lightning shooting down my leg.

My cycle changing with long, drawn out bleeding; enough to stain my bed.

I rub my eyes, bringing my vision back into focus.

I’m greeted by the sight of my mother’s hands.

My mother’s hands make my children breakfast.

My mother’s hands cup their tiny faces before grazing tiny noses with a kiss.

I catch a glance in the ...

I chose to walk down this path. The knowing from deep within that it had to be done pulled at me; it pulled at my feet.

I stepped up onto the precipice. I closed my eyes and extended my arms.

A trust fall: into myself....