One year into the pandemic and we’ve decided to play Monopoly tonight. It’s making us laugh. We’ve been getting along so well for such a horrible year.
I grew up in a family with 5 kids so…I’m remembering rainy day Monopoly chaos. More later.
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Ellespeth♥
When I Talk About Home
I know
I can’t describe
the way a 4PM rain smells
at 5PM
when it’s a steam bath
walking home.
Or explain
why
I
rushed to a stage 3 times
to throw my bandana
to Willie Nelson
and how normal that felt.
Or paint for you
fully enough
or write a poesy perfect enough
about how the swamp
from a plane high above
brings salty tears
to the memories in my heart.
I know.
Ellespeth
Ellespeth ♥
Time again for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. So grateful to PJ for hosting this weekly challenge. This week’s photo prompt is provided by Goroyboy. Thank you Goroyboy:)!
Please follow lil froggy for more stories:)
Here is the photograph and my story:
Cotton Fields – by Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter
When I saw this photograph, I was filled with the sense of this song – these lyrics, this magnificent songwriter, his story. I’ve copied the lyrics below. How could I do any better?
Ellespeth
Cotton Fields – Huudie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter
When I was a little bitty baby
My mama would rock me in the cradle
In them old cotton fields back home
Oh when those cotton bolls get rotten
You can’t pick you very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home
It may sound a little funny
But you didn’t make very much money
In them old cotton fields back home
It may sound a little funny
But you didn’t make very much money
In them old cotton fields back home
Oh when those cotton bolls get rotten
You can’t pick you very much cotton
In them old cotton fields back home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields back home
I was over in Arkansas
People ask me what you come here for
In them old cotton fields back home
lyrics by Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter
Huddie Lead Belly Ledbetter( art by Robert Crumb)
We had roast chicken with carrots and potatoes for supper tonight. I lit a candle. We talked about today and our plans for tomorrow. Now we are listening to Marva Wright belt out some blues. And I am just thinking of stuff…like my life and what’s important to me now.
Yesterday, we made a fabulous blackberry pie:)
Laterz,
Ellespeth ♥
Can’t say how many Allman Brothers concerts I’ve been to – including the one at which I fainted sometime around here – 1970. I loved Gregg Allman’s blonde-ish hair and his bluesy voice and just about everything bout his band’s music.
Now he’s dead…but it all lives on in memory.
Ellespeth ♥
It must be October. Most people are into Spring Cleaning. I have always been into October Cleaning. So then…there it was; that piece of my old blue chenille robe I saved to remember where I came from.
A Piece of Old Blue Chenille
Today a Domestic Goddess
swept gracefully through
our private spaces.
I remembered Her
from long ago
bidding me
save a piece
of this old blue chenille
to remember the robe
that soothed you.
I touched that soft blue piece today
and the me
long ago wrapped in comfort.
Ellespeth
Just now reading that Pete Fountain has died and had a proper Jazz Funeral down the streets of the New Orleans French Quarter. Swoon on now y’all. Wish I’d have been there for the march…
My brother plays the clarinet – ever since our high school band….and still when he’s blue.
Always a soft spot in my life…those two.
Ellespeth
Here is my submission for this week’s Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. Thanks to PJ for hosting this weekly challenge. Click the lil froggy for more stories.
My Dad is dead now but every year, on Valentine’s, he’d send me a card from ‘your secret Valentine’. Here is a tribute to my Dad and to Secret Admirers.
Click little froggy for more stories.
Dead Leaves On A Red Bench
It’s been a long time
since I’ve visited here
long time
since we placed the bench .
Leaves
covering the fiery red
are dead
but still I think of you
and the cards you sent
signed
by someone secret
who loved me
and I loved you
Sweet Daddy mine.
Ellespeth
This week’s photo prompt is provided by Ady. Thank you Ady!
I had a little baby doll once. Her name was Baby Doll. She was born about 1958. I still believed in Santa Claus. She was delivered on a Christmas morning with a dent in her box. My dad told me that Rudolph had accidentally stepped on her box. That made me feel like she was truly special 🙂 I bragged about her all up and down the block. That Rudolph had actually stepped on my baby doll’s box. I never once considered her damaged in any way. She was just special. I told her all of my secrets. When I grew up and moved away, my mom kept her. And my sister’s doll. We both had the same kind. Eventually, as adults, my sister asked for her doll and I kept asking my mother to keep her for me. I hadn’t found the most perfect place for her. My mother kept her in the same bassinet she’d used for all five of us kids. A little white wicker thing that had a little white wicker rocking chair along side of it. My mother always dressed my dolly in clothes I’d actually worn as a baby. Lost my dolly to Katrina. Searched since then for another and –
Last week, I found her! Please join me in welcoming:
Gigi Ruth! The lighting is horrible but she’s totally beautiful. I’ve named her after my husband’s mother – who’d be over 100 today.
She must be the most perfect baby doll I’ve ever seen! Sooo realistic looking. I’m amazed. I hope I’ll be able to take pictures in better lighting soon but….this is her perfect self!
And here too! 
How do they do that these days? Make the dolls look so real? Plus she feels real – soft skin, etc – and is weighted like a real baby. I’m thinking to take her grocery shopping with me this week end. Hahaha!
Ellespeth
Views From A Poet 