Salty like hot dogs (and tears). Sweet like marmalade (and life).
I ran the water
Helped her get into the tub
That was when I knew
She who had bathed me
Could no longer bathe herself
Our roles had reversed
This week’s W3 prompt: Choose one specific object or place from your childhood—a bedroom doorway, a schoolyard swing, a favorite toy, a familiar street—and write about the moment when it began to feel different: when you sensed that childhood was receding and something else had begun.
Does it count if I was in my 50’s when this happened?
Last night I had a dream in which a wild-eyed prophet appeared before me and told me this story:
Once there were two people in a hospital room.
One had drawers full of pens at home. Not the cheap ones that come 12 to a pack for $1.99, and not $200 fancy-schmancy pens, but nice ones, in assorted colors and point thicknesses and types. Her favorites were Pilot G-2 07 — and she owned at least 50 of them, keeping them in every room of her house, and multiples in her carrying bag.
The other worked at a low-paying hospital job. His employer purchased cheapy pens that came 12 to a pack for $1.99. The pens skipped and blurped out ink blobs and were entirely unreliable, so he saved up the loose change he found in the parking lot of the grocery store or on the sidewalks when he was walking home. Finally, he had enough to purchase one Pilot G-2 07.
She hadn’t expected to be in a hospital room that day. She didn’t have her bag. She didn’t have any pens with her. When she was asked to sign some papers, she needed a pen. Almost as if by magic, this Pilot G-2 07 was placed in her hand, and she signed the various papers on the proper lines beside the hastily scrawled red X’s.
When she finished, she looked for the person who had handed her the pen, but everyone was gone from the room. Everyone. The nurses were at the nursing station. The housekeeping person was dry-mopping the floor. The transporter person was pushing the pen-lady’s family member to radiology.
She looked at the pen in her hand. It was a nice one. Blue. Fairly new. Shiny.
And she thought, “I could just stick this pen in my pocket, in case I need to sign something else today. Nobody will really miss it. It will go very nicely with the dozens of other pens I have at home.”
When the housekeeping person came into the room looking for the pen, the pen-lady pretended not to notice because she had the pen tucked neatly in her pocket.
“Wait — ” I said — in my dream, of course. “That’s not what happened. I did NOT keep the pen.”
“You thought about it,” the wild-eyed prophet said accusingly, and his wild eyes grew even wilder as he stared at me.
“It was a FLIT,” I said. “The thought flitted through. I never seriously considered keeping the pen.”
“You did. You lusted after that pen,” he said.
How can anyone argue with a wild-eyed prophet in a dream?! I found myself going back to that moment, when I held the pen and didn’t know who the owner was. In the space of a firefly blink, I had thought about keeping it — but then I set it on the stand where the owner could easily find it.
The wild-eyed prophet interrupted my mental replay of the situation. “You have a pen problem,” he said, much more gently now. “You have more pens than a person needs — and you keep purchasing more. You go down the pen aisle at Target, Office Max, even the Family Dollar, and you look at pens. You buy pens. You don’t need any more pens.”
“But… but…” I stammered, “I like pens.”
“Give them away,” he said, his voice growing distant as he seemed to be being sucked into a far-off light. “Commit to sharing your pens…. Carry them in your bag …. and give them away.”
Then, he was gone.
I woke up in a cold sweat.
What does it all mean, I wondered?
This post was originally written in June 2017. I even posted it because it has two comments from that time — both from siblings! I’m insecure enough about my writing, though, that I moved it back to the draft folder, probably within 24 hours.
Today’s Word of the Day prompt is Parking Lot. This post came up in the draft folder. When I read it, it made me laugh — in part because I DO have dreams like that, and in part because I still have a pen problem.
Kind dealing
Comes not through whim or feeling
But a choice to act with tact —
Fact
This poem is in response to the Ragtag Daily Prompt: Whim. It’s an Irish form called Deibide Baise Fri Toin which is written in quatrains with the following syllable count per line: 3-7-7-1 . The rhyme scheme is aabb, with the first two lines rhyming on a two syllable word and the last lines rhyming on a one syllable word.
Shadows fall upon us all
Currents carve, water erodes
Creating cliffs strong and tall
Wisdom worn bears heavy loads
For this week’s W3 , we are challenged to write a tanaga inspired by the theme “Life and Wisdom.” Explore the lessons we learn from living, the choices we make, and the experiences that shape us. Even a simple image from nature can become a metaphor for a deeper truth or moral lesson.
The tanaga is a traditional Filipino poetic form, similar in its brevity and depth to the Japanese haiku. It often uses rich metaphor, or talinghaga, to offer wisdom, advice, or vivid imagery.
Your tanaga should follow these guidelines:
Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.
John Wooden
January 12, 2015 I wrote that quote as the start of a post and never wrote any more. It sat there in my draft for 11 1/2 years, until today when then Ragtag Daily Prompt (RDP) was the word “whatever.“
John Wooden was an American basketball coach. He is considered one of the greatest coaches of all time. When I was coaching swimming, I read some of his books, and found him to be so wise.
That quote encapsulates something I believe so strongly. I remember telling my high school swimmers that their competitors are there to help them swim their best time. I still remember a moment when I saw that in action.
It was the league championship meet. One team, Delhi, always dominated. I had been told when I took over coaching that we would never beat them and that the previous coach’s goal had been to score x-number of points. I thought that was a silly goal and that we should work to be the league champion.
Anyway, it was the league championship meet. The score was incredibly close.
The second to last event in a high school meet is the 100 yd breaststroke. I knew we didn’t stand a chance to win it, but if we did, we could win the meet. Delhi had an amazing breaststroker. My breaststroker, a girl named Becky, was good, but not that good.
When the girls dove in at the start, Becky had a good start. Her pullout was good. She looked strong, but she was clearly behind. At each successive turn, Becky pulled closer to that lead swimmer. In final 25, Becky came on so strong, it still brings tears to my eyes as I remember it.
Becky was right there — RIGHT THERE — at the finish, and the Delhi swimmer out-touched her. That win for Delhi meant that winning the championship was out of reach for us. (That year. The next year we won it.)
But in that moment, I watched Becky do something I will never forget.
Becky turned and looked at the times on the scoreboard. With the biggest grin on her face, she reached over the lane line to shake hands with the swimmer who had won. I watched Becky say thank you to the girl who just won.
When she got out of the water, she said, “You were right, coach! That swimmer helped me swim my best time.”
And it was a best time by a lot.
The championship was small potatoes compared to the lesson I saw played out. People who are smarter, stronger, faster help us become better versions of ourselves. They push us and challenge us.
Writing this out made me think of this movie scene from As Good As It Gets
And all this is to say, that maybe, just maybe, Mark Carney can help someone in the US government be a better man.
Today’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt is to choose a song that reflects different types of behavior that people exhibit.
I never read the book or saw the film “Georgy Girl” but I’ve known the song by The Seekers for what seems like my whole life.
We all wear masks, don’t we? The inspiration for the prompt is that August 16 is Authenticity Day “which encourages people to show their true personalities. It emboldens people to embrace their true selves, do things their own way, and move beyond simply conforming to expectations.”
This song speaks to that behavior, the behavior of being inauthentic because we feel the need to hide who we really are.
Hey there, Georgy girl
Swinging down the street so fancy-free
Nobody you meet could ever see the loneliness there inside you
Hey there, Georgy girl
Why do all the boys just pass you by?
Could it be you just don’t try or is it the clothes you wear?
You’re always window shopping but never stopping to buy
So shed those dowdy feathers and fly a little bit
Hey there, Georgy girl
There’s another Georgy deep inside
Bring out all the love you hide and, oh, what a change there’d be
The world would see a new Georgy girl
Hey there, Georgy girl
Dreaming of the someone you could be
Life is a reality, you can’t always run away
Don’t be so scared of changing and rearranging yourself
It’s time for jumping down from the shelf a little bit
Hey there, Georgy girl
There’s another Georgy deep inside
Bring out all the love you hide and, oh, what a change there’d be
The world would see a new Georgy girl
Wake up, Georgy girl
(Hey there, Georgy girl)
Come on, Georgy girl
(Hey there, Georgy girl)
Wake up, Georgy girl
Songwriters: Jim Dale / Tom Springfield
At 80 Mom “rested” her eyes
As did Joe Biden — no surprise
Trump “rests” his in many places
Meetings1, funerals2 — sans disguise
Trump weaves a lot (not string or laces)
Mixes lands for US bases3
Iceland? Greenland? Does it matter?
Pinky? PeeWee?4 Meh – same faces
Tic Tac, Tik Tok5 — chitter, chatter
Covfefe6 served on a platter
Would you drive down The Hormuz Street7?
Hormuz Strait all bombs and splatter8
Dumb has a “b”.9 Who knew? How neat!
Dumocrat10 — such a silly tweet
Islamic Republic — Japan11?!?
Defeat him? No! Obvious cheat!
Shithole countries12 we ought to ban
Not Norway, places African
Discuss terms telephonically13
Big nuclear button14. Oh man.
So rest your eyes; the world can see
We’ve become a hostile country
You’re all about making money
This is not who I want to be
Feel free to fact-check me —
1 – One example: at a cabinet meeting on December 2, 2025, Trump was photographed with his eyes closed while various cabinet members spoke. The cabinet members said that he just blinked.
2 – Trump was caught on camera with his eyes closed at Lindsey Graham’s funeral on July 28, 2026
3 – Trump confused Iceland and Greenland at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2026
4 – At a rally in Marietta, GA on July 24, 2026, Trump compared Jon Osoff to Pinky Herman.
5 – On July 28, 2026, Trump declared himself Number 1 on Tic Tac. I think that’s a pretty small platform. He might have meant Tik Tok.
6 – What exactly is covfefe? He has never told us since he coined the word May 31, 2017.
7 – On July 22, 2026, while addressing students in metro Atlanta, Trump refered to the Hormuz Street.
8 – On February 28, 2026 the Strait of Hormuz was closed by Iran after they were attacked by the USA
9 – On July 16, 2026 (and multiple other times), Trump explained, “Dumb. You take the the B out. Most people don’t know that dumb has a B.” I feel like this is a case of pots, kettles, and the color black.
10 — Trump first used this term in May 2026 at a speech in New York.
11 – Yes, on July 8, 2026, at a NATO summit, Trump refered to Japan in this way. He probably meant Iran.
12- January 11, 2018 in the Oval Office, thus spake the president, who is strongly backed by conservative evangelical Christians, in the beautiful language of noble world leaders.
13 – On April 30, 2026, Trump stated that negotiations regarding Iran were being conducted “telephonically,” noting that this approach eliminated the need for lengthy 18-hour flights for in-person meetings.
14 – On January 3, 2018, Trump tweeted that his “Nuclear Button” was “much bigger & more powerful” than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s.
This week, the W3 challenge is to write a funny roast or a strong complaint about a government leader or another person who has power. I don’t know how funny this is. I mostly feel angry.
The poem should use a form called an interlocking rubaiyat.
Here is how the form works:
The rhyme pattern looks like this:
AABA / BBCB / CCDC / DDED
This is my response to this week’s Writer’s Workshop prompts
12 things I learned and/or grew to appreciate this month week (because I’ve been in Maine for the week):
A tadpole doesn’t have any legs and a froglet has all four. This polywog, as you can see(maybe), only has two legs.
2. Maine blueberries grow low to the ground and are tiny, compared to our New York blueberry bushes. They are harvested with special rakes. They have blueberry bushes in Maine, too, but those teeny berries from the ground plants are PACKED with flavor. Who knew?
3. There is more than one Fort Knox. My dad was stationed in Fort Knox, KY, and it’s known for all the gold there. But before that Fort Knox, there was a Fort Knox in Maine built in the mid-1800s. It’s a massive granite fortress built on the edge of the Penobscot River.
4. Perspective is always important. When you’re looking from the outside, you can’t see in very well (see top Ft. Knox photo). But when you’re looking from the inside out, the world just seems to open up.
5. The Penobscot Narrows Bridge is one of only five bridge observatories in the world. The other four are in China, Thailand, Slovakia, and South Korea.
6. Perspective is always important. (Yes, I already said that.) Looking down and looking up are totally different views.
7. Beaches hold amazing surprises.
We found this crab shell on the beach full of… we didn’t know! It turns out they are Marine Springtails, a relative of the snow fleas I’ve seen at times in New York. They’re an important part of the beach ecosystem, part of nature’s clean-up crew.
8. Museums are fun.
We stopped at the Penobscot Maritime Museum, mostly because of this guy beckoning us in. I learned more about sardines than I thought possible.
9. Sometimes kids don’t appreciate museums.
This was in a box of comments that I looked through. It made me laugh — and feel a little sad for the kid who wrote it.
10. Museums can be very funny for kids (big and small) who engage with them.
This photograph was hanging in the ladies room at the Penobscot Maritime Museum. It was taken by a turn of the 20th century photographer, Charles Coombs, who was also an undertaker and taxidermist. The picture made me laugh.
11. Floating classrooms can be massive.
The big ship in the back is called The State of Maine and recently came into Castine, home to the Maine Maritime Academy. Its primary purpose is for training Maine Maritime cadets while also being available for federal humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission. We went to see it but couldn’t get any closer than this.
12. Sunsets are beautiful everywhere.
This post was originally written August 5, 2017 and has languished in my draft folder since then.
The father bellowing at the little boy in the Walmart parking lot was a bad start.
“JOHNNY,” he roared, “GIT YER A$$ OVER HERE.”
The open tailgate made me think that the father had been putting his purchases into the car. The boy skulking back from the cart corral looked to be about 8 or 9 years old. He was scowling. I would scowl, too, if someone spoke to me like that.
Walmart. I felt a snobbish “ugh” rising inside me.
Inside, the store was a disorderly mess.
“You can always tell when the students start coming back,” commented a woman looking at the same merchandise as me. “They trash the place.”
“It is a mess in here,” I agreed.
“I shop here every week,” she said. “Today is the worst I’ve seen it.”
I gathered my items and found the shortest line to check out.
The shortest line was not short. When the elderly couple ahead of me finally got up to the register and the cashier was nearly finished scanning, their package of chicken needed a price-check.
“I’m sorry,” the man said, turning to me. I could barely see his eyes under the brim of Carhartt cap.
“No worries,” I said. “I’m not in a hurry.”
“Me and my wife got a carful of groceries already,” he said, nodding toward a hunched-over woman with blue-gray hair. “Frozen stuff prolly meltin’ in the car… but she forgot a few things so we come back in.”
A few things meant a cartful.
“I hope you aren’t far from home,” I said.
“Blenheim,” he said.
I knew that was about an hour away. In the middle of nowhere. Near Breakabeen.
“I’m sorry,” I told him.
The Walmart supervisor came to check on the chicken. She called on the radio to the meat department. “Anyone there gimme a price on some chicken?” she asked. I couldn’t hear the response because of her earpiece, but I didn’t need to — she announced it. “I gotta walk this over to the chicken department to get a price,” and off she walked.
I turned to the man behind me. “I’m sorry,” I said, even though I knew I had nothing to be sorry for.
“No problem,” he said. “I just moved here from Long Island. You should see the lines in their stores.”
So we waited.
“You could move over to a different line,” said the Carhartt man.
I looked at the line next to ours. It was moving faster, but I’m not one to jump ship. A burly man helped unload an elderly woman’s cart on the belt, but when he left with his bag, I realized they weren’t together. It was just a nice move.
The chicken department was on the far side of the store. I kept watching that direction to see if I saw the supervisor heading back.
The blue-haired wife mouthed “I’m sorry” to me. I smiled at her.
I made eye contact again with the man behind me. “I was in Europe this summer,” I told him. “Time doesn’t seem to matter as much there.”
“I know,” he said. “We could learn a lesson or two from them.”
The chicken was still MIA.
In the line next to me, a man holding a plant — his only purchase — was let ahead of a customer with a full cart. “Thank you SO much,” he said, enthusiastically. The woman who had let him pass just smiled.
I smiled, too.
There were nice people all around me.
In Walmart.
Finally chicken lady returned.
I told Long Island man, “Here she comes!”
“Hooray!” he said.
I felt like we should clap or something.
By the time I got to the parking lot, I had nearly forgot the unpleasant father-son interaction because I had seen and talked to so many nice people in the store that day.
I could guess why I never posted this — too wordy. It’s a problem I have.
But the message to look for the nice people? Yes, I needed that today.
Be not conformed to the impatience and nastiness of the world, but be transformed by the goodness that’s right in front of you if you look for it. (a bastardization of Romans 12:2, but nonetheless true.)
Roll that dry weed across an empty road
Underscore my dry and empty feeling
So this, this is Wyoming, new abode
So far from home made this place appealing
I couldn’t speak about my need for healing
Although unbidden tears oft spoke for me
No one could understand my need to flee
Turning, turning, and running far away
How do I put this awful thing behind
I set my mind to one thing: learn to pray
So as to focus my intents and mind
To hold the world at arm’s length, yet be kind
Laudably said, “Wrong number!” when he called
Even as I hung up, shaking, I bawled
Tumbleweed, today’s RDP prompt, brings up one very specific memory — 1983 crossing the state border between Nebraska and Wyoming as my (then) husband and I moved there to start a new life.
This poem is a Rhyme Royal, which uses the scheme ababbcc, the lines having 10 syllables each i.e. (usually) iambic pentameter. Rhyme Royal is also sometimes known as the Troilus stanza.
The poem is also an acrostic for RUSSIAN THISTLE. Russian thistle (Salsola tragus or Salsola kali): The classic plant seen rolling in Western movies.
Hot Dogs and Marmalade 