This Is What You Get When…
1. You can’t breathe because of smoke from the wildfires and
2. You’re housebound 5 months because of the pandemic and
2. Your brothers are looking Hurricane Laura in the eye and
3. You have a president who doesn’t believe in climate change or medical experts and
4. You text your sister, in Mississippi, asking what’s up with your brothers and
5. She replies:
6. So you assume all is well.
Ellespeth ♥
We are working on our photo album. This one, of my husband and his big brother, should win a prize.
Circa 1950: How To Take A Selfie
1) Wait for Mom to go to the grocery
2) Have brother help you take down the bathroom medicine cabinet mirror
3) Bring that down to the back yard and prop it up
4) Get the camera
5) Lay on the ground. Face the mirror. Take your picture.
Ellespeth ♥
A lot of the young tech workers, in our building, came home yesterday hauling bags and boxes of work in order to work from home for – seems like – the next three weeks.
I told David, this corona virus is like a hurricane. You know it’s going to hit but you don’t know where or how terrible it will be. So…We made a midnight grocery run last night to avoid being around too many people:
No Clorox or any other kind of wipes like that
No rubbing alcohol and minimal amounts of vodka and gin
No rice
No toilet paper
NONE OF MY FAVORITE PEANUT BUTTER!
No oatmeal
No eggs
Oddly, no dish washing powder
The store had moved Spam to a prominent location.
David is almost 80 years old. I don’t see how we can possibly keep watching the babies at the church two mornings a week while their mothers have time off and a breakfast. It’s too risky. I wouldn’t want to go alone either because I wouldn’t want to bring anything home to him. (not that I’m that young, I’m almost 70) And so we are going to self isolate ourselves as much as possible until we see where this thing is going in the Bay Area.
Unfortunately, this has forced me to read the news and to see once again what an idiot our president is:( Words cannot express how distressed I have been for the last three years. Of course I get on with it every day and all that but…deep at my core is the knowledge that my county has been forever changed by this presidency. I sense that to be true and have written about it privately. Some poems. Some stories. I’ll see where they lead.
Since I am on the internet anyway, reading the news, I will try to catch up here.
Wash yer hands dammit!
Ellespeth ♥
When You Love Him Sunday Anyway
Some don’t believe
in God but
I will believe
in that elusive hope
that births wildflowers
from a frozen earth.
Ellespeth
Ellespeth ♥
We are making some sort of frozen lemonade cool whip cream cheese sweet condensed milk fresh strawberry something pie to freeze for tomorrow.
So…
I babysit the grand baby.
You make a grocery run f or the creamed cheese.
Just now I open the fridge and four packs of cream cheese almost fall out.
Me: Whoa! What’s this? Four packs of cream cheese?
You: Two for the price of one.
Me: (after observing the packs and noticing you’d bought different types of cream cheese) Perfect.
You: How many did you say you needed for the pies?
Me: (I needed one) Oh this will do for sure.
You: (smile and settle into your easy chair)
What’s not to love about you?
Ellespeth
Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf. Please follow lil froggy for more stories.
This week’s photo prompt is provided by H.R.R. Gorman. Thank you H.R.R.!
A Day In A Life Seeking Joy
When I woke up this morning, I felt wrapped in an aura of joy. What did I care that my 4-year-old had jumped up and down on our bed until he was sure I was wide awake? What I did notice, though, was his somewhat “I know I’m in trouble” grin talking to me.
Dear Marie Kondo ~
I want to make this as short as possible. When I woke up this morning, this is what awaited me in my 4-year-old’s room:
Help!
Stella from New Orleans
Dear Stella ~
Oh! This is a very easy messy one to handle. Take each piece of toilet paper and fold it in threes.
Marie
Ellespeth ♥
Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Thank you, PJ, for sponsoring this and for all of your hard work on our behalf. Please follow lil froggy for more stories.
This week’s photo prompt is provided by Yinglan. Thank you Yinglan!
Morning Dew Long Ago
That day, on the way to school, my brothers and I walked into some police fencing. I told them it was just a simple fence, but they insisted it was some sort of police fencing. So, I climbed the chain linked fence. Just beyond where I landed were streamers of what looked like toilet paper. They were wet and heavy from the morning dew.
“Someone finally wrapped ole man Johnson’s yard!” I called out. It did look like that to me.
My voice giggled and caught on the wind and landed in my brother, Evan’s, ear. “You come back here right now, Heather,” Evan yelled.
“You come back here right now, Heather. Do ya hear me tellin’ you?” Evan shouted again.
I did hear him but someone had taped my mouth shut and I couldn’t reply.
Ellespeth
(Upon Reading Trash News About Jeff B’s Penis)
I Love You Deeply
Remember
when the green onion’s
membrane
would sticky up
the disposal
and you’d clean it out
~ you’d move on ~
because we all know
it’s those deeper levels
we chop up
that make us cry?
Ellespeth
My husband has taken ill. We are trying to make the best of it. We will know more this coming Thursday.
Meanwhile we are keeping our spirits up. I was reading an article about meditation and lips and read something about sipping through a straw shape which led us to this song we both remember so well:
Ellespeth ♥
Views From A Poet 