she gushed candied lies
something saccharine fierce
living labyrinthine sweet but
only fools fall for her
promised treat
empty hands & honey
stolen child & treacle
too sweet too sweet too sweet
Category: writing
honey
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Waiting for the interurban
Photo by Josh Hild on Pexels.com The bus was running late, as usual. The only sensible thing to do in such conditions is to smoke a cigarette, as far as Paul was concerned. So he did.
“I’ve run out of fucks to give,” he said, dropping a pinch of tobacco into the cigarette paper. He shifted the distribution of the tan, shredded leaf, pushing it to the edges of the paper. The amount was still unsatisfactory by whatever criteria he had, so another pinch was added shifted about until he was satisfied and his fingers started their practiced rolling to transform the package into a serviceable cigarette.
(more…)Drip drop
Photo by Roger Starnes Sr on Unsplash Drip drop, water in the well. She peers down between the moss stones and half-shadows to the water’s tenebrious surface casing ripples with each drop of dew gathering in the chill of the dark before it casts itself downward, a suicide plunge to rejoin the well of spirits gathered below.
(more…)casting runes — 13oct25
fehu for all our gaudy riches,
longing is the incense
which lingers after we wakeA poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is fehu, which has a core meaning of “cattle” or a more generalized “livestock”, which was a representation of personal wealth or earned prosperity. Sometimes luck played a role. Wealth and prosperity was valued, but was looked down upon when material accumulation appeared to be excessive, greedy, miserly or turned to hoarding, especially when those around you were lacking.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
getting out
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash I’ve decided that I need to get out into the real world and step away from my man cave in the basement more often. Although I am not much of a people-person, I have been feeling the need for face-to-face human interaction from people other than family members.
Essentially, I’m looking to take a break from extreme isolation that has been the hallmark of my existence since I elected to sober up. Over the past 16 years, I’ve largely forgotten how to socialize, which is starting to wear a bit on my psyche.
(more…)horizon roads
lizard tails and tail feathers
our hearts lined in trees
bloodstone inside and
marching square toes
in steel rings and bootblack
down the horizon roads
scented with burnout:
come night, she singsin the unbelonging
we are all immigrants
here, in the unbelonging
all swarthy and sullied
by drifter dust and road
with bold farmers' tans
and gravity frowns
dragging us down
we only wanted world
nothing terribly profane—
we only wanted love
drag boot scrape shoe
we shuffle the broken road
heedless of the dreamless slumber
where nightmare monsters wear
faces we call neighboruntil the end of time
i watched as the shallow boat
carried two dead lovers
into the mists and away
to the place of apples at
the hands of destiny's child
wiping away tears,
i bid them goodbye
rest well
rest well
until the end of timeSacramento, CA
I’ve been spending some time in Sacramento for the purposes of checking out a laboratory that my company uses to analyze environmental samples to either better understand a site we are actively trying to remediate, or as part of the actual remediation process. Yes, my day job is part of a team cleaning up other folks’ messes.
And while I was pleasantly surprised that it was not purely for show to visit the lab and make sure they were on the up and up (checking the box, as it were) and not “dry-labbing” their results (e.g., making up some reasonable numbers and putting them into a report as results when they never actually analyze the samples; and yes, I’ve seen it happen in the distant past), I got several bonus out of the affair that were unexpected: a better understanding of “exotic” service offerings that have come up on my radar in the past that I couldn’t find a lab to perform, some good chatting about other possible partnering opportunities, discovering some of the best Thai food that I’ve had in years (dinner was even better than lunch!), getting something on the order of 30k steps in and getting to see a lizard (gecko?) in the process, and (best of all), getting to meet someone in person I had only previously known via WordPress, Bridgette White.
(more…)out of the car
even cities, oft disparaged
provide plenty nature
if only one would
get out of the car
and look
