Monthly Archives: August 2016

Shock

Posted on August 31, 2016 by sputterpub

It was called Shell Shock at first. Then Battle Fatigue. Or Combat Stress Reaction, technically. It didn’t acquire the big syllables until late in the 20th century. PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Until a couple of decades ago, only soldiers … Continue reading →

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Solitude

Posted on August 30, 2016 by sputterpub

You look at me like I’m insane, because I say that I don’t want a partner yet. You act as if a set of natural laws demands that I be married. You forget how bad I was at being someone’s … Continue reading →

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How I Spent Today

Posted on August 29, 2016 by sputterpub

My alternating interests ruled today. At times I read a book I’ve got by heart, and in between I tried to grasp the way our bodies handle energy. So part of me inhaled two hundred years ago, the balance breathing … Continue reading →

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Three (Non)Wishes

Posted on August 26, 2016 by sputterpub

A deathless life and wealth beyond compare and never laboring: these are the three conditions legends say we would repair, if granted wishes. Immortality or gold is first, the other next, and work- avoidance makes the third gratuity. Then fables … Continue reading →

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RLP

Posted on August 25, 2016 by sputterpub

Location was a fact of World War II. They happened to be here in ‘41 and stuck on visas. Everything they knew inspired them to angle for the sun. Tecate, then, for precious latitude of Nazareth and wealth of golden … Continue reading →

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Bonafide Bitch

Posted on August 24, 2016 by sputterpub

I think I’ve always been a dog person. I remember Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. Among my early books was one called Champion Dog Prince Tom, about a runt cocker spaniel who made it big in obedience trials. When Dad … Continue reading →

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Melanoma

Posted on August 23, 2016 by sputterpub

“He’s gone to life’s next phase,” the mother wrote to thousands in the database of prayer. She typed her pain around a guru’s quote and filled our monitors with grief. “Beware the power of the sun. Apply your screen without … Continue reading →

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August Lilies

Posted on August 22, 2016 by sputterpub

The belladonna bloom in August light upon their rhubarb tubes. They focus out like gramophones, their silent song a shout of heated pink, their beauty overbright. The crinum stretch in shade to freakish height. Among their ramps of foliage, they … Continue reading →

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Fat Sonnet

Posted on August 19, 2016 by sputterpub

With swollen legs and burning heart and every cell athirst, with flesh as tight as drumskin and a roughened tongue accursed from all the salts and fats and sweets that nearly made me burst, I pen this song of pig-and-bloat, … Continue reading →

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More on Myth

Posted on August 18, 2016 by sputterpub

Once upon an ancient time ago, men were just as primitive as now. Hormonally impelled to fight and show the women who’s in charge, they monkeyed how to raise a god reflective of their need: to make a masculine mythology, … Continue reading →

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