Reflective Writing
I see my skin in pale pink, yellow hues.I see the same skin under white pointed hats,under the rhetoric of white, right religion.I see the same skin under the screams of people,innocent, beautiful people,being scorned, raped, beaten, hung.What right do I have to say these words,the color of my skin, my eyes, my hair, my … Continue reading An Embarrassed White Person
may I go days on broth alone spiced with mushroom and veggies or just a can of beans over a burner and coffee for the day may I carry the sinking weight of my pack on my back please Noodles are good. Already? Now, it's noodles. next it will be four cars, two houses, three … Continue reading Today
He was a broad shouldered, raven haired man almost kid looking, thick, dark eyebrows, and carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder. He was one of the new guys to the towing company running tugboats up and down the Mississippi tying barges together. Shifts run fifteen days on the boat, and five days off. It … Continue reading Tugboat Parking Lot
From the old, wood framed window, across from my bed, I saw a flock of white bellied geese fly by in their arrow formation in the sky. It was so early in the morning, the alarm clock still had over an hour's worth of minutes to tick through, but their demonstrative calls woke me so … Continue reading Morning Geese
In a large forest, there was a ancient pond home to hundreds of toads. For over five hundred years, the Keaton family governed the pond. The Keaton family were known for their intelligence, bravery, and athletic skills. They followed practical rules, which kept toads safe from predators. There was one toad named Nicolas, a Keaton … Continue reading A Toad Sang
There is a civil political war over American values and policies. Issues about climate change, immigration, human rights, gun control, taxes, health care, and education have all been areas where compromise and collaboration get thrown out the window. Where does this leave the American people? Nowhere, in-between, without leadership. It's disconcerting that our country can't … Continue reading End Political Civil War, or Not?
It hurts my heart when I see the ever-present struggle of being jealous, dissatisfied, discontent, anxiously trying to keep up with the Joneses, not like a sport, but a job. Most people want to be as good as the next, accepted, held in good opinion, but where does it get us, to not to be … Continue reading The Grass is Greener
Shelter, warmth, cradled by blanket. Aware of Shasta so present and awake. Moonlight bright, reaching spotlight full snow abounding space, mounds of white planets stacked under my feet. Black horizon burning stars surging blue. Glittered ice crisp crystals, silver glass, powdered dust layered in sheets of ivory fabric laced with fiber optics, carpet starched snowflakes … Continue reading Snow Mountain
Capitalism with some socialist values is collaborative and smart. America is not in danger of losing our keen sense for individual rights. It is in danger of continually being one of the most ill equipped nations concerning health care, education, and renewable energy. Everyone is responsible to contribute, everyone is expected to pay taxes, then … Continue reading Capitalism with Some Socialist Values
We were four towheaded kids piling into a little red wagon on our way to the supermarket. My little brother and I squeezed between my sister, the oldest, and in the front with each leg kicked over the edge, and my older brother who was on the back rim pretending to be a caboose. Mom … Continue reading Little Red Wagon
Cliffs blanketed in clover and overgrown grasses, blackberry vines mound under the tall cypress canopy. Burgundy striped ice plant weave between wildflowers. At the rocky rim, winds cut away timeless sedimentary layers resembling sky blue and violet. The sky is lined in white scattered clouds, how grateful, how lucky, how safe standing between such a … Continue reading Climate Change
Light tinkers, crawls over lichen-painted oak and dangling moss. Up and higher it climbs, striding over darkness with a big transparent foot. Dawn’s white cuff forms around the softening moon changing night to broken shadows. Like a ladder, imprints of glowing squares topple over the treetop, the leaf top. Dew is a smoke screen under … Continue reading Morning Moments
Polar Bear, a distant mirage in the stars and clouds, strong nobel protector in those magic hours of bedtime stories, books, documentaries, legends. Slow luel of winter gazing, snow pouncing cubs, little tummies. I look down at the pink nose on a ballerina bear I just bought for my niece on her first Christmas. I … Continue reading Polar Bear
Glimpses Gentle currents of fall breeze curl over a patch of prairie land. Around the sun clouds drift casting golden mirages on browning ground. Long lost tales under crispy leaves tan, turning red before winter drawing near. Just like coves of blankets like a dome over my bed evermore dimming quiet and about silent, hibernating … Continue reading Now and Then
A little thump my foot landeath there, upon crackling foliage November bare Done the days of reckless care simpler treasures near, quiet listening ear Cleaner air and a softer stare by the creek bed and the hill Mountain dare do I go, I go up there Ask not for days in spring and tall tales … Continue reading Winter Dare
I have always seen the American Dream as a type of money machine. We work to pay for family, houses and cars, or vacations, and yet think less on our daily quality of life. When younger, I had a hard time looking up to society, even today this struggle is present. I wonder at our … Continue reading Revolutionizing the American Dream
It is no wonder that efforts to censor public dialogue is on the rise considering the mass amounts of police brutality, racial profiling, unlawful justice, immigration cruelty, slanderous remarks made by leaders of our country, and so much more. The public has been crying out enough is enough. People will not live under social stigmas. … Continue reading Censoring on the Rise
People are continually in a state of creating. Thought instigates actions, action is the perpetual mode of the human being. Creating can be anything from the mere change in the atmosphere to a newly materialized invention. Creating is constant. We create neural pathways when we think. We create artistic design when we paint, imagine industry, … Continue reading Living an Aesthetic Lifestyle
Pressures presently pressing on mind maximized with empty shell like ruins. I don't like this, so sue me, and you just might. If I go digging, my hair is orange, my lips are red, my body size twelve. Isn't a size six today a twelve in the seventies, and I'm glad of it, so sue … Continue reading Voice
Fever raging strikes inside bursting out through our eyes He ignores- we're enemies on a bloodied grass ground looking down but not seeing, shield and sword and tongue and fist Un-wielding, dark vicious bites and growls alike He blames me, me me, and me He broke the kitchen chair. I charge him like a she … Continue reading In Love Fighting
Why have we not had an education overhaul in this nation! We are far behind the times and suffering. With teachers not being paid enough or aided with enough resources, kids overwhelmed with homework, but not learning as much, with student debt suffocating the young person's ability to get ahead. Where are we? Who are … Continue reading Education Overhaul
Standing Rock is yet another example of privileged corporations making their disregard for others known. After all these years of American culture stealing, invading, hurting Native Peoples, First Nations, Native Americans, still today it is tolerated no matter the protests. Why were other plans not implemented for the pipeline, no matter the cost? For generations, … Continue reading Standing Rock
Collaborative efforts surrounding gun control are mandatory in the consideration of rights to bear arms. We must try and do something about the desperate need to protect the public from public shootings. To cling to laws that only protect private life and not public life, and after so many public casualties is highly controversial. We … Continue reading Gun Violence
Once there was a creature, born from the infinite. Once there was a creature, born from the living and the dead. It came to being one starry night, in a field made of gold. Through the barren floor from cosmic light, grew a divide splendor sored. Through heaven and below the creature shouted and it … Continue reading The Living Creature (Fable in Song)
There, a green meadow, just beyond the wooded shade open grass, long blades, belly barren from winter one slow pausing step, watching, listening careful not to trust clear day too much sunlight over my nose moist, lifting eyes of beaded brown stare upon spring patches, watering mouth, luring, stepping, step bowing my head, I eat … Continue reading The Green Meadow
Kate Lunsford 