Waterline

September 4

WATERLINE

The interface of water and land is compelling.  Soothing but dramatic; I’m drawn to this transition.  I stand and watch the lap, lap, lapping of the liquid to the land.  The gift of one place to another calls me.  Change and transition exhilarate my senses.  Whether it is rock or sand, river or sea I feel the pull to watch life in response.  Boundaries are beautiful.  Borders allow safety and recreation, not just risk.  When I embrace this in life I embrace it in me.

Do it twice, once with the pattern and once without.

*

The Naked Not the Dead

Because comfort is sometimes no comfort

I can shave my hair and walk bare in the naked world.

Removing pretense helps in unexpected ways.

Foolish action becomes formulaic

when you are scared or hurt.

I lived through the summers of blood;

the winter is not enough to stem the tide or heal the wound.

I have no want to raise the dead,

but how to save the living?

Poverty is the inheritance of so much misguided lethargy

and I must shear off the illusion of maturity

and let the children speak.

You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault

http://www.amazon.com/Sober-On-The-Way-Sane/dp/1440417342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576888&sr=8-1&keywords=sober+on+the+way+to+sane

http://www.amazon.com/More-Lines-From-My-Life/dp/1448677203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576956&sr=8-1&keywords=More+Lines+From+My+Life

Urban Landscape

May 19

URBAN LANDSCAPE

“I am taking this giraffe to the penthouse.  Do you suggest the elevator or the stairs?”

“Why do you choose these complicated tasks to fill your days?” asks my sponsor. 

“You think this is beyond my abilities?”

“I didn’t say that.  I do believe either you or the giraffe is likely to get bent out of shape.  But that is only the most obvious of observations.”

“What if I told you being disproportionate is both of our natural states?"  I asked.

“I know that, too.  My darling little lamb, you may be a contrast to the multitude, but why make it harder?  Why not a ranch with cathedral ceilings?  Bay doors even?”

“You are taking out the spirit of adventure,” I say.

“Baby, you may have confused frustration with excitement,” says my sponsor.

“Yes, but you have forgotten the view.”

Put three buttons on a shelf.

*

NaCl

I work arithmetic instead of telling you to stop.

I make a light remark and never take a stand

until I have worked the numbers

and believe that the weight of suffering is on my side.

I store in the cellar the salt I found in my wounds

and label it, with names, dates and corresponding critique,

all waiting, hoping, I will never need to disclose them,

but keeping them accounted for just in case things go badly.

I believe there is no chance for error with silence

and no wrong when I have backup in the basement,

but I need to table the salt and risk my reality.

You can’t hurt me worse than I do

when I pour old salt and create new wounds.

You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault

http://www.amazon.com/Sober-On-The-Way-Sane/dp/1440417342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576888&sr=8-1&keywords=sober+on+the+way+to+sane

http://www.amazon.com/More-Lines-From-My-Life/dp/1448677203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576956&sr=8-1&keywords=More+Lines+From+My+Life