Tag: writing101
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When Thanksgiving is a Sacrifice
I don’t want give thanks. Sorry, Ann Voskamp, but my heart can’t hear you now. I gaze at the starry sky, watch thunderheads roll out over the ocean and lightning bolts streak from the clouds to the water; I stand in speckled green sunlight beneath rows of cypress trees draped with Spanish moss…and I don’t […]
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All That I Am (If We Were Having Coffee…)
If we were having coffee right now I would be laughing or crying or ranting. It depends on which me shows up. If default-Nichole showed up, I would tell you about how I busy I am, how I love my job and my family and my friends and creating things and fleshing out ideas. How […]
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A Thousand Secrets
In secret She lives but barely Hiding always behind painted eyes and heavy hair She tucks a strand over her ear Runs a finger down smoothing the blackness down Fingertip grazing her neck Skin Brushing skin Her eyes rise to yours glistening like black opal She smiles a smile that knows a thousand secrets You […]
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From Here to There
A piece of fiction Writing 101: “And don’t come back in ’til I call you! You hear me?” “Yeah, yeah,” Sammy muttered under her breath. “Babygirl! I said, do you hear me?!” “I am not a baby girl!” “Do. You. Hear me?” “Yes, Mama. I hear you,” she grumbled. Sammy let the screen door slam behind her, […]
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Not Mine to Keep | A Poem of Love and Loss
For my girls: Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh is this child this woman who now walks away from me Always she is walking away…always, she is going I wish she had come with a note, like a present with a ribbon tied ’round her wrist and a card attached with the […]
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Home
I moved 21 times before I turned 12. That makes 22 different homes and no, my parents weren’t in the military. 22 apartments but only two school systems. So actually, all that moving wasn’t as disruptive as you might think. I mean, sure, it was draining. And we did reach a point where we stopped unpacking […]
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Choices
She sat alone, waiting for the doctor. Or would it be a nurse? A counselor maybe. God, why don’t they hurry up? Cold and clammy, she gripped the vinyl table, peeling up her bare legs one at a time and repositioning them. The sound of the paper gown and table cover crinkling and echoing in […]
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Unanswered
I find the letter. Worn. Faded. The words still familiar. Melodic whispers of another time, another place. Of two faces, close together, flushing beneath a thousand sunlit cherry blossoms. The blushing trees stretching endlessly in every direction, motionless…as if holding their breath, waiting, listening. His soft, brown eyes already asked the question. Her heart beat […]
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Committed
As in, I should be…committed…somewhere quiet, soft, with baby pink walls and no sharp objects. Because otherwise I might hurt myself. What was I thinking?! Signing up for an online 30 day writing class. And just three days in – three days! – they ask for a commitment. Commit to a writing practice, they say. […]
Lightning Bug 