back at it again & biometrics for 200, please, Alex!

back at it again

hopped into the hot seat–outta
practice for four years, but
took to it like riding a bike
again.

I knew I’d get the hang of
it as soon as I put hands
to keyboard and head to
tasks.

I am a people person who
people’d more than I should
today, and I didn’t spazz out,
I didn’t lose myself in the
deluge of patients rushing in
around lunchtime.

I kept my cool,
breathed several deep
breaths, and turned on
the charm I am most known for.

I crushed it.


biometrics for 200, please, Alex!

cell phone
biometrics, I’ll never
understand it.

another way of
verifying who I am,
the owner of this
phone…

I’d like my
dactylogram to save
after I appointed it
the best method
to this new age
madness.

however, every time
I attempt to break
through the locked
screen, my own
phone doesn’t
recognize me.

I guess it’ll have to
be a pattern or a
pin number instead.
the digital world
wins again.


Oh, nothing… I’m just out here being creative in Substack notes again.

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.

solistitial & jujitsu’d out of love

Two poems written on Substack notes

solistitial

a solstitial event was
the day she left
silence at the foot
of our friendship.

there is nothing
more heartbreaking
than a woman who
doesn’t know her
heart’s desire being
capable of crushing
the heart of another.

now I have a
timestamp of when
I learned the phrase
“I will never hurt you.”
has an unspoken addendum:

“unless I’m afraid of what
your love can do
to me.”


jujitsu’d out of love

I’m at a point where
my mind is debating
with my heart to
not have it jujitsu
it anymore.

it’s tired of fighting a
fight for lackluster
love and never
winning.

I used to be a
strategic runner–
hurdling over dead
weight and con
people.

now I lean into
obstacles with heavy
artillery stationed
around my person.

I handle war much
differently in my
older years.

I know how my
battles often portray
themselves, and I
fight smart not hard.


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.

But Aren’t We All Spinning Now?

AI-Generated Image. Created with Google Gemini. A White man with short, messy hair, standing in the middle of nowhere, holding up a crumpled letter. He is dressed in faded jeans with a matching jacket. He is wearing glasses and has a mustache running into a beard. Above him, the sky is dark & gloomy.

I caught the last forty-five minutes
of Spinning Man, and wondered
how I had never seen such a
trainwreck of a movie before. 

I won’t bore you with the details:
it is enough to make one’s head 
roll. Men have been coercing
women into the bowels of 
dysfunction for eons.

This shouldn’t be any different. 
It wasn’t. I think I’d just had my
fill of creepiness and absurdities
for half a year. 

Isn’t it something, though? 
To remember what never happened
and not remember what has? 
To spin while standing in place? 
Aren’t we all spinning now? 

The carousel of life is packed
with people losing their minds
under the guise of “survival of
the fittest,” and soon, we’ll all
be damned.


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.

finding my way to the light & greedy, nasty men

Two poems written on Substack notes

finding my way to the light

the day nearly got
away from me, and
I remembered I
hadn’t poeted yet.
hadn’t penned
something that
would set me free.

although I feel
dislimned, I press
forward and find my
way to the light. I
will not give myself
permission to break;
I’m allowed to bend.
I’m allowed to
stretch.

but I damn sure
better not break.

there’s much work to
still be done, and
those of us with
stones as strength
know we have to
build ourselves up.

we are the crumpled
up pieces–rock hard
and steady. when the
weight is heavy; we
bear it with the
world hanging on to
our hearts.

the blood of our
ancestors wave in
our bones. we can
hear the maker
calling us home.

we’re getting ready.


greedy, nasty men

I believe TACO feels
that keeping all
exculpatory information against
him from the
public can stick.

but people will
remember the
moment their hearts
broke. people remember losing
trust in human beings.

it is the pain that
connects us all–the
suffering that binds
us. from starving
communities to
burning cities to
the coal-filled hearts
of men who call the
shots…

we will remember.


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.

What If We Could Haiku the Pain Away?

A Book Review

Tranquility: An Anthology of Haiku

I am trying my best to fill my life with positive images, words, and people. Given our current situation, my heart needs it more than I thought it would. I do not want to come undone.

Enter, Tranquility: An Anthology of Haiku, edited by Gabriela Marie Milton and published by her team at Literary Revelations, is a book that is lifting me to higher places.

I’ve recommended this anthology before as an informative post, and to share that I, too, have five haiku published in it.

Here’s the review, shared on Amazon and Goodreads:

An Anthology of Creativity, Expressiveness, and Tranquility

Before I purchased this anthology, I knew it would be a work of art. There are over 230 writers and connoisseurs of haiku included, and with every turn of the page, a land of wonder awaits the reader.

Edited by Gabriela Marie Milton and published by Literary Revelations, the team has produced a book that is sure to stand the test of time.

It is an outstanding follow-up to Petals of Haiku: An Anthology, and is now placed alongside it on one of my bookshelves.

I appreciate and have an affinity for the form of haiku as it pertains to micropoetry, and every contributor shared their five haiku in creative and vividly expressed ways.

I have no doubt this book will be one I turn to when I need a place of calm as my personal retreat.

If you want to experience creativity at its highest, timely serenity, and be engulfed by the expressiveness throughout the anthology, then, I suggest this book for your collection.

We all could use a bit of tranquility.”

An overwhelming sense of calm would enter my body every time I picked up this book to read it. It’s as though every writer were in sync with one another.

We all understood the assignment. And I hope you’ll take the time and care to share with your heart a plethora of haiku that’ll definitely do it some good.


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.

raw-dogging America because they can & giver

Two poems shared on Substack notes

raw-dogging America because they can

the current
administration will
gainsay any and
every question asked
of them and their
position on a certain
batch of files.

if you’ve gotta do
that much lying
and pussyfooting
around the topic,
how safe are your
words?

how safe are you?


giver

when you’re a giver,
it doesn’t hit you
how much people
take away from you
until you feel like
emotionally… you
have nothing left
to give.

and then, you have
to remember to
burnish your soul
in order to restore
YOU.


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.