play with fire
but know
fire burns
everything
it touches.
flames can be
hypnotic
beautiful
warm
ancient.
but know
fire burns
everything
it touches.

Answered prayer! God can change the hearts! And he is the Great Physician.

My dad is back in his rest home! They've released him from the hospital, a week before they said he would be out. He does NOT have to go to a nursing home where he would be housed like cordwood. We were very much afraid that he would be miserable. And he would have been. But he's back where he can garden. He has some plants growing in his room. He can do the things that he used to do! The doctors are astounded. They held out no hope of this happening. None of the administration seemed to want him to stay in his rest home. they said it would be too "dangerous" for him! I believe God worked on their hearts so they can see that his longevity is dependent on his activity. He's always been a very active, intellectual man. This will be a testimony to him of God's power. I think he was resigned to his fate. But he had so many people praying that he would be put back in to the home where he's staying now, and he knows it. He survived cancer due to the prayers of the Believers. Cancer free for 7 years! Now this! It's difficult to doubt anymore!

Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts! You made a tangible difference and my father's life was in the balance. And you blessed me immeasurably. May you be blessed with the blessings that you have bestowed upon us!

☆♡☆♡☆ HALLELUJAH! ☆♡☆♡☆

In my yard stands a tree
tall and sturdy
lone like a hermit,
regal like an empress
her roots dug deep
her branches touching the heavens
peeking behind the skies veil
She has a coy dalliance with the Wind
Sometimes he comes tickling
her tender parts, whispering
sweet nothings in her ear
Overall she is still
Still....................
like waters without ripples

She stands upright
brooding over the saga of struggle
from a sapling to a towering giant
Indeed a tryst with destiny!

Under the summer sky
braving the smarting beams
she remained uncomplaining.
Below the thundering clouds
bearing a thousand needle ******
she stayed nonchalant.
When the wind swept across
bending her branches in all directions
she stood on firm feet unwavering.

She tells a tale of struggle and survival
She had stood there before I was born
Now she displays every scar and every stripe
on her knotted bark as a proud trophy

Sometimes I feel her pain
when wet and dripping in pouring rain
or scorched in the sun’s fiery rage
Yet she holds an umbrella over all
who come to her in sun and rain

I was raised by a mentally ill father.
Because there is comfort in numbers,
I, too, was afflicted by a similar disorder.
It’s difficult to separate the person from the sickness,
Sometimes impossible.
Sometimes we become the shadowy monster,
Embrace it with wilted roses,
Knowing too well that of everything else,
The disorder will still be there,
Waiting.
My shadow has been dormant.
My father’s is still active,
Seeking.
Sometimes when we meet it’s like a perfect storm,
A tornado of comfort.
Someone understands the climate.
I take my father’s hand encouragingly,
He turns to run, squirrely,
The shadow greets me with open arms.
I love the shadow as much as I love the man.
After all, there is comfort in numbers.

A close read
reveals that
I am nothing
but a rough draft
riddled with
misspellings—

a work in progress
watered down by
superfluous adjectives,
non sequiturs, and
smothered verbs.

Love is an editor.

She courts me
with a pocket of
sharpened pencils,
blue and red.

She marks me
up meticulously—
dele, stet
dele, stet.

Decades punctuated
by intermittent edits.

Sunlight slanting
through an hourglass.

Her hair as white
as the final page.

When the end comes,
will she love me enough
to give me another pass?

if all you may gain is comfortable be charitable
I walk daily to the store and pick up cans and old papers
seeking no reward treasure sometimes comes
like the day I found forty dollars
it was a bonus more than I got from
those fifty years of being greedy
I see people smile or notice me and my dog
Missy walking right there the entire time next to me heeling
pointing out litter by ******* next to it
and smelling the passers by the litterers
the bad dog that went this way the hound the
ground hogs
I smile when I do that Missy smiles
we got it too comfortable
I wish all could

Please come to me,
maiden, so honorably fair
For you are the
most beautiful rose
in my forest

Please come to me,
maiden,  so honorably fair
For you shall grow in my garden
but with no sunlight
nor spring water

Please come to me,
maiden, so honorably fair
For your tears will soon be forgotten
when you submit to the earth underneath