Short Stories & Poetry
Clive in the Well
I let him go, the old bastard. Made my life hell, he did. Don’t think I’m sorry. I’m not. You don’t know what he put me through.
When I saw those manure covered boots of his sticking out of that well, it was just more than I could do to stop myself from running right over there and giving him a little shove.
But, I say to myself, Emma Jean, you gotta think this through. You gotta make sure you do it right. You ain’t gonna get a second chance. So I crept over, nice and quiet like, cause he might hear me, yah know, and pull himself out of that well before I get close.
Way I see it he’d do the same thing to me if I gave him half a chance. I ain’t that stupid anymore. Not like that time when I was helping him with the haying.
There I was way up there in the haymow stacking them bales real neat like. Didn’t tell me it weren’t safe. Then, all of a sudden, there I was flying through the air. Them hay bales was floating past me, and wood crashing all around. I missed all them barn boards, thank the Lord. Landed hard on my backside.
Lucky I didn’t land on one of them cows in the mow below, but they must have been psychic like, cause they’d all hightailed it outside before that damn floor gave way. Thank God for all them hay bales. They sure did cushion my fall. Kept me out of the shit, too.
But then there was old Clive, madder than a hatter, he was. All them curse words. I hadn’t heard so many strung together in a dog’s age. Couldn’t figure out if it was the mess of the hay allover in the shit or the caved in roof, sure wasn’t him being worried about me.
So I don’t think that little shove I gave him was so bad.
POETRY
Friend or Foe
I saw the prints of
A giant feline spattered
About my garden
Were they friendly or were they not
Captured creatures
Taken from the wilds
Robbed of their heritage
Basic instincts curbed
Made to live among man
Coddled and protected
Dependent for food and shelter
Then when novelty fades
And the price to maintain
Too high for man to bear
Released to the wilds
Forced to fend for himself
Thrust into a new world
No cozy rug on which to lie
No shelter from the cold
No dish of prepared food
Forced back to nature
He must resort to instinct
Make his bed among the trees
Find and kill his diner
And now
When he comes to my door
Is he coming as man’s friend
Or his mortal enemy
What does he see in me
Am I the provider of his next meal
Or am I it
To My Mother
My mother, my confidant, my friend
I do not want to loose you
I want to hold you close
Clutching your body to mine
But I am afraid of breaking
Those fragile bones
That hold you so loosely together
I do not want my great need of you
To hold you to a life that
No longer has meaning
What regrets do you have
As you look back on your life
What changes would you make
Would you have used
Different threads
In the tapestry that you wove
It has been a difficult life
Not one filled with as much love
As it could have been
Yet you endured
And gave us love
Did you keep going
More for us than yourself
I see you getting weaker
With each passing day
The oxygen tubing
That binds your life to ours
Becomes more strained
And less efficient
As you struggle for each breath
Do not hold on for me
I will survive without you
You have given me your love
Your kindness and your strength
These gifts will be with me always
Your memories I will hold in tender grace
To bring out one by one
As I continue on life’s journey alone
But let me give you my love
And allow you the peace
To take your next step
On your journey to God
The Passing
The night chill reaches to the bone
As I watch the life slip
Out of a lonely child
With each breath
A little more lost
Her slight indrawing
Is not enough for even
Her tiny frame
Colour once blushing pink
Slowly fading
From the limbs
Then the frail torso
Eyes that danced
With child’s delight
Stare vacantly ahead
Her heart beats bravely on
Knowing it cannot win
But defiant to its end
A life of hospital care
That wasn’t quite enough
A life slips through
Our fingers
And is gone.
POETRY
Friend or Foe
I saw the prints of
A giant feline spattered
About my garden
Were they friendly or were they not
Captured creatures
Taken from the wilds
Robbed of their heritage
Basic instincts curbed
Made to live among man
Coddled and protected
Dependent for food and shelter
Then when novelty fades
And the price to maintain
Too high for man to bear
Released to the wilds
Forced to fend for himself
Thrust into a new world
No cozy rug on which to lie
No shelter from the cold
No dish of prepared food
Forced back to nature
He must resort to instinct
Make his bed among the trees
Find and kill his diner
And now
When he comes to my door
Is he coming as man’s friend
Or his mortal enemy
What does he see in me
Am I the provider of his next meal
Or am I it
To My Mother
My mother, my confidant, my friend
I do not want to loose you
I want to hold you close
Clutching your body to mine
But I am afraid of breaking
Those fragile bones
That hold you so loosely together
I do not want my great need of you
To hold you to a life that
No longer has meaning
What regrets do you have
As you look back on your life
What changes would you make
Would you have used
Different threads
In the tapestry that you wove
It has been a difficult life
Not one filled with as much love
As it could have been
Yet you endured
And gave us love
Did you keep going
More for us than yourself
I see you getting weaker
With each passing day
The oxygen tubing
That binds your life to ours
Becomes more strained
And less efficient
As you struggle for each breath
Do not hold on for me
I will survive without you
You have given me your love
Your kindness and your strength
These gifts will be with me always
Your memories I will hold in tender grace
To bring out one by one
As I continue on life’s journey alone
But let me give you my love
And allow you the peace
To take your next step
On your journey to God
The Passing
The night chill reaches to the bone
As I watch the life slip
Out of a lonely child
With each breath
A little more lost
Her slight indrawing
Is not enough for even
Her tiny frame
Colour once blushing pink
Slowly fading
From the limbs
Then the frail torso
Eyes that danced
With child’s delight
Stare vacantly ahead
Her heart beats bravely on
Knowing it cannot win
But defiant to its end
A life of hospital care
That wasn’t quite enough
A life slips through
Our fingers
And is gone.