Category: Men

Left-Handed in a Dream: A Haibun

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Part VI: Discovering memories

AI-Generated Image: A Black woman with locs looking at a photo album while sitting outside on a bench. She is wearing a jean jacket with a hot pink halter top under it. Her hot pink nails pop as they slide across the photo album.

Memory goes for a long walk. She carries one of her favorite photo albums with her. She is reminiscent of the times she and Rodney shared before marriage. Their friends always knew they would do life together — that they’d succeed in lassoing one another to their hearts. They did. And now she is searching for the feelings she used to have before marriage. She wonders where they have gone. Can she find them in the photos before her eyes? Discovering memories could serve her better than the past ever could. She’s desperate. She loves Rodney and wants to continue to spend the rest of her days with him. But she needs more. She craves more. Will she find what she’s looking for in the pictured past?

discovering life
while the sun sets in full view
bittersweet lovers

This concludes the Left-handed in a Dream Haibun series. Thank you so much for reading.

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, & Part V

Have you gotten your copy of my new book: a collection of serial tales & flash fiction, Séduire (E-Book and Paperback) yet?

I recently signed up to write on Substack as well. Poking the Bear’s Belly for Fun is a place of healing as I speak about the most recent events with my place of employment as it pertains to racism and discrimination. I welcome your visit.

Peace and Blessings!

Something To Think About #1

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A sprinkle of light during these dark times

Voices of Democracy: FDR, The Four Freedoms Speech

I will share “Something To Think About” for the next fifteen weeks on Sunday afternoon. It may be a quote, a picture, an interesting phrase I heard, artwork, etc. Whatever I share will surely be intriguing or involving enough to spark a casual discussion or in-depth conversation. Stay tuned every Sunday for this new feature!

Peace and blessings.

Have you gotten your copy of my new book: a collection of serial tales & flash fiction, Séduire (E-Book and Paperback) yet?

Home To Nowhere: Part V

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Microfiction: Kazi’s confirmation

AI Generated Image of a Black man wearing a light-colored shirt with a kinky afro, bearded face, and centered in front of a blurry inner-city background. Created with Canva.

Kazi enters the house and finds his two favorite girls in the kitchen. Kimya looks distraught. Kelsey is in tears.

*This. Must. Be. The. Day.* He thinks to himself.

“She knows?”

“She does.”

“Everything?!”

Kimya breathes out an exasperated breath, shifts in the chair, and sighs before responding. “Yes . . . Yes, Kazi. Everything.”

Kazi looks over in Kelsey’s direction and hangs his head solemnly. What more can he do but provide a safe space for Kelsey at this moment?

“Come here, Kels. Come here, baby girl. I got you. I always got you.”

Part I, Part II, Part III, & Part IV

Two Things Thursday #19

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1. A Poem for Eustace R. Conway, IV created with Canva by Tremaine L. Loadholt

trapped trauma for the mountain man

a poem for Eustace R. Conway, IV

boy blue’d and black-hearted
made by a stubborn man
found himself peacekeeper
of the wild.

so sick of torture and
pinged for disobedience, he
trekked the world outside
his father’s home and made
love to the Carolina forests.

with nature as his mistress,
there was no place too
remote for this young man
trapped in his traumatic past
struggling to build a present.

he had loves who loved him
but he didn’t understand the
rules of falling in love, and
suffered heartbreaking consequences,
instead.

when fame found him
and plastered his noble features
on nationwide television, he
remained humble.
journalists, writers, and nosy
women wanted a piece of
Boone-infused pie.

his father’s namesake and his
mother’s favorite, he managed
to live up to his expectations
more than anyone else’s.

and even I, in my soon-to-be
mid-40s, can appreciate the
pain of childhood trauma when
it shapes and molds a
man into one who is
probably five times better
than his father.

or, that’s what I’d love
to believe to be true.

2. Lenny Kravitz. Photo courtesy of Essence.

1. I am enjoying the book I’m currently reading so much and the subject/character of interest, Eustace R. Conway, IV, that I was moved to write a poem about him.

My reading of the book led me to a few Google searches about him, and he’s really an incredible human being! I had no idea he was one of the most influential and liked characters of the no-longer-running show, Mountain Men on The History Channel.

Apparently, he’s uber sexy and intriguing to a lot of his fans and the envy of many men longing to learn more about mountain living and gaining sustainability in remote areas among nature.

2. Leonard Albert Kravitz, lovingly known as Lenny Kravitz, is a singer, songwriter, actor, father, and all-around beautiful human being.

He has had many musical hits and a signature, distinctive sound.

When you hear Lenny Kravitz, you know it’s him.

Here’s a YouTube video of my all-time favorite song by him: “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over”. Enjoy!

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

Two Things Thursday #7

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Bay Leaves 

BY NIKKI GIOVANNI

I watched Mommy
Cook
Though I cooked
With Grandmother

With Grandmother I learned
To pluck chickens
Peel carrots
Turn chittlins inside out
Scrub pig feet

With Mommy I watched
leftovers for stew
Or vegetable soup
Great northern beans
Mixed collards turnips and mustard greens
Garlic cloves Bay Leaves
Very beautifully green
Stiff so fresh
With just a pinch of salt
Not everything together
All the time but all the time
Keeping everything

I make my own
Frontier soup in a crock pot
I make my own ice cream with a pinch of salt
And everything else
With garlic
But fresh Bay Leaves
Are only for very special
Ox Tails

2. A Mitch Albom quote from Pinterest

1. Bay Leaves, a poignant and vivid poem by the incomparable Nikki Giovanni. Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr. is alive and well and is 80 years old. She is an activist, writer, creator, poet, a lover of her people, and wishes to see humanity at its best.

Bay Leaves is a favorite poem of mine by her.

2. Mitch Albom quote. Mitch Albom is one of my favorite authors. I was introduced to his work as a junior in college for my Psychology, Death & Dying class.

We were tasked with reading Tuesdays with Morrie and writing a 5-page paper regarding the effects of the book on us throughout reading it.

I fell in love with this book. I was 20 years old and experienced so many emotions while reading it. I still have an incredible memory of each event documented in the book. However, I’ve read it several times since then, too.

If you haven’t done so, do yourself a favor and give this one a bit of your time.

I own four of Mitch’s books and they all deal with death, grief, dying, and adjusting to life after loss in some way. He is truly a genius in this subject.

Right Is Right and Wrong Is Wrong.

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And when wrong has gotten out of control, people speak up!

Breaking things down professionally and respectfully.

When we are money-hungry and crave power over humans’ actual existence and well-being, many countries suffer; many people suffer. Death knocks on multiple doors and takes its reward.

Google Sudan. Research the recent occurrences in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Look up the history of Haiti. Your mind will be blown away.

Greed breeds power. Power breeds evil. Evil breeds the death of many to get back to greed.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has imposed sanctions on 37 Russian groups and 108 people including a former prime minister and a former education minister and said he aimed to fight wartime abductions of children from Ukraine and other “Russian terror”.


Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that the armed forces shot down 29 of 38 drones in an overnight raid. More than 400 towns and villages in the south, south-east and north of the country were affected by the drone attacks, including an oil refinery that was hit in Odesa.


Ukrainian troops are working to push back Russian forces positioned on the east bank of the Dnipro River, the military has said, a day after Ukraine claimed to have secured multiple bridgeheads on that side of the river that divides the country’s partially occupied Kherson region.

The Guardian

I’m extremely over the overlord of Russia and his expectancies and over-elitist actions and presence, and he needs to be taken down several pegs.

It’s been nearly two years. I’ve one thing to say to him and any minions at his disposal, “Ain’t y’all tired yet?!”

Where is peace when you need it? Where is justice when it’s overdue? And why must so many fight to obtain both?! Why–because they’re tired, too. Doing right really isn’t hard.