O Brother Where Art Thou Cookie? Remix

Just having some fun- enjoy!

Freedom Undisputed

One, click-click.

Two, click-click.

In time with his powerful

Hooves striking the

Soft dirt his

Sides heave, sweat

Darkens his white spots and

Beads down his brow in

A reflection of mine.

I hit the saddle, a methodical

Padding like the sound of

A ball striking a mitt.

His teeth roll

Against the bit,

My legs stretch down, straining.

I sit,

Kick,

Fly.

The spaces between the hoof

beats spread,

my body defies gravity,

shooting horizontally with

a rocking motion

from his muscled legs

propelling forward

over dark unscathed ground.

An unstoppable force

Under my still hands.

I tuck my legs in and

We move as one,

Breathing together.

A smile pulls at my lips-

I’m home.

Alice Down the Rabbit Hole

The following is a poem I wrote for class and the assignment was to take a well-known character and add a twist. The poem is about an Alice that lives in the modern day world. 

Multicolored lights flash

Off my sky blue dress

To the dark walls of Dominion.

A stranger’s unfamiliar lips

Are heavy against mine,

Stealing my messy red lipstick.

The dank club is hot-

A barn of bodies-

But I won’t go home tonight.

I lean my face against

The cool bathroom looking glass,

Reflecting raggedy blond hair.

Push my blue-painted

Pointer finger to my lips;

Swallow the pill engraved with

an X, to extract any anxiety.

The ground disappears

From beneath my bare feet,

I spiral straight down-

But I won’t go quietly.

I close my eyes

And stand perfectly still,

So still everything slows down.

At home

The moment is broken when

Mother knocks our blue glass vase,

It clatters on the kitchen floor.

As quickly as it appeared

My Wonderland vanishes.

Where were you, Alice?

Mother screams,

Straightening her scant self

To full height,

Dull brown eyes narrowed.

I stare

It doesn’t matter what I say

She is already gone.

Where the hell were you?

My father’s words slur out,

The whiskey in his stiff hand

Swaying in unison

With his staggering form.

C’mere, he says,

I’ll give you a shiner

To cut you down to size.

Brotherless

The snow squeaks under our footfalls,

his longer and heavier than mine.

Kevin stops and looks straight up, squinting hard.

Don’t look at the sun, I tell his unhearing ears,

then tug his hand, but he won’t budge.

The syringe I hold squirts Respirdol into his juice-filled cup.

Kevin continues to concentrate on his plate,

three chicken nuggets remain when he is done

like every meal since he first ate chicken nuggets.

I point to the next addition problem on the page

and his dilated eyes focus on me,

flat and blank with all the interest

of a deer, unaware of what is

beyond itself.  

The pencil remains lifeless by his hand.

He presses the faded rewind button on the VHS

and I watch The Fox and the Hound,

the sole movie he plays,

as it again returns to the beginning

where it is supposed to be.

His autism does not afford him

The capacity or patience

To watch a movie.

Later Kevin wanders into the den

where I sit alone and moans

like a starving man that spots food

already resigned that he won’t reach it.

Bobbing his head wildly,

a hammer in the wind

he faces up and yells.

The walls shake

with what he can’t put into words.

The garage door creaks open

and Kevin jumps from his chair,

the fastest he has moved all day.

A huge smile decorates his face—

Mommy is home.

An “Unwanted Label” is Redundant

“What year are you in again?” I withheld a groan. Here it comes.

            “Freshman.” The career services lady stared at me blankly while she registered her shock. I waited patiently while she recovered.

         “Freshman?! Well, it’s a little early for you to be here…” her words made me clench my jaw. I’d received skepticism for being a freshman before. More than a few times.

            I have what I like to call OPD- Obsessive Planning Disorder. I contribute it to a paranoia I have that can only be placated by deciding my whole life from now until death. All I can do is give in, which lands me in situations such as these with the distraught career services employee.

            “Well, I can give you a personality test to help you determine what you want to major in,” she said sweetly, pulling some sheets from a file. I could see that this meeting was going to get worse before it got better. If it got better.

            “I already know what I want to major in…I’m actually interested in taking some career tests,” I plastered a smile on my face. I could feel her disdain growing with every breath I took. Generally, freshman didn’t go near the career center with a ten foot pole. They are too undecided, and as I freshman I must, too, be undecided about what direction I want to take in life.

“I am going to dual major in English and Economics.” If only OPD were certifiable so that she would understand. She smiled and her eyebrows shot up.

“Wow. That’s a lot.” Doubt dripped from every word. Suddenly I felt myself reduced to the clueless freshman that made rash decisions and changed my mind more times than I blink.

Granted, people my age do change their minds a lot. The point is that in the next three years of my life I am not going to go from a complete novice to an experienced, old wise woman. Just because I have been given the label “Freshman” over “Sophomore,” “Junior,” or “Senior” does not make me automatically less mature, prior to contrary belief.  

My advisor’s reaction was similarly shocked when I handed her a list of virtually every class I am going to take through graduation. When the initial shock subsided, she professed her love for my ability to plan. I like her. I think I’ll go back to visit her after I graduate GMU with my Master’s in Human Resource Management.

College Potties

If a shudder ran down your spine upon reading the title to this post, that was the appropriate response.

My resident hall is called Virginia- also the state I live in so when I get asked
"Where do you live?" and answer
"Virginia," the general response is
"No, I mean what resident hall do you live in?"
Virginia. I live in Virginia.

Anyways, Virginia houses around 200 girls and has hall bathrooms. I just want to take a moment to cover some of the glorious perks of these luxurious college bathrooms:

1) Toilets.
When flushing, it's recommended to jump out of the way before the cold toilet water splashes your legs. There is little I can compare to the experience of throwing myself into the stall door to stay dry after wrenching myself out of bed for my blessed morning classes.

2) Showers.
When someone flushes and you are in the shower, jump out of the water while it momentarily turns scalding hot. Don't touch the shower curtain either while you're at it- you don't know where it's been. And don't want to know.

I believe that these are tactics the University is using in an undercover operation to get our reflexes moving quickly to ensure survival when the world ends in 2012 and we all have to move underground. It's working- when I went home last weekend I jumped out of my shower when I heard the toilet flush in the other bathroom.

3) Sinks.
The protocol for sinks is Don't Ask. You really do not want to know what new unidentifiable substance is in there. I promise. Just prepare yourself by clamping down on your gag reflex before you reach that side of the bathroom.

4) The Bathroom Trivia Game:
Which stall won't be out of toilet paper? Whichever one you check last.

5) Smells.
Does the whole hall smell like bleach? The answer to this question will tell you wether or not the bathroom has been cleaned recently.

6) Paper Towels.
Without them, our pants become towels. Just like at that crappy restaurant hangout you were at all the time in high school.

7) Floors.
The Virginia Hall bathroom floors have been wet since the dawn of time and will be until 2012 when all the buildings melt. Accept it. Embrace it. Don't wear socks in there (Unless you like mushy feet- that's your prerogative).