The United States has the highest rate of school shootings when compared with every other country. This needs to change. The Founding Fathers gave people the right to own firearms so that they could rise up against an unjust government. However, in modern times, the government has nukes and missiles that would be extremely tough for firearms to beat. Furthermore, firearms are being used in school shootings, a horrifying mutation of what the American ancestors wanted. Perhaps people can sacrifice the safety they find in guns for the sake of the safety of their children?

...a smile suits

every style;

It wears well

with suede,

Blue or some

other hue...

half lit or bared

...a smile makes

every hair into

the trend-y

up do and

It's very truth

looks good in

unpolished

shoes and

slippers too

...a smile from

the inside

defies whatever

attributes

might've been

pasted on...

or otherwise

be fallen,

wayside

...a smile that's

genuine, is

a little nip

of Happiness

for the rest

of us...

passin' bye.

02.16.23

Remind Someone challenge @RosemarieThorn

I wonder what she dreams about, if she seizes up like I do in bed at 3AM, or if she has truly forgotten what it means to love someone else. I dream about birth and death, they say I'm a black and white thinker and my dreams can attest. But I never dream about her. Maybe we earn our place in someone's subconscious, sleep as a means to see who truly matters. The folds of my brain accommodate for her lack of love like a whisk mixing a cake together with the forgotten, crucial, ingredient of trust.

There is no reminding her of what it means to enjoy life. I see a skeleton of what could be, the x-ray showing something too broken to fix. I die for her in real life, the way I can't when I'm asleep in bed at night. I hope for her to find happiness and joy, but I only see how her dreams have gone unfulfilled, shattered on the floor. I want to remind her of her humanity, how it glitters in the light. But when is it too late to tell someone something, to say: be honest with yourself? It's hard to say what she dreams of. At 3AM, we're all alone, I hope she finds the courage to make her life her own.

I’m not sure why we were out late during a snow storm but I remember it was dark and I was bundled up in my favorite coat, a brown furry coat with Nordic floral designs on the sleeves and around the hood. Before getting in the car, I remember my mother tying the hood tight under my chin. Chin ties never stayed where they were supposed to in the 70’s. They were basically a long shoe lace and they were always sliding up over the chin. I was five and my brother, Todd was 4. We sat in the back of our Ford Pinto bundled up together without seat belts on and my mom mumbled to herself as she turned on the radio. At 5 years old you don’t really question where you are going at night in the middle of a snow storm but now I do question it. Looking back now, I’m sure we were out looking for my dad in strip club parking lots.

As the car traversed along the snow packed streets of town, I bounced in the back seat chewing on my hood ties and thinking about Captain Kangaroo. “Todd, how many ping pong balls do you think Captain Kangaroo has?”, I asked. “A lot Worwi! (this is how pronounced Lori), he said. “I like it when they fall on his head.”, I giggled. Todd giggled too as his blond curls bounced out of his stocking cap as my mom came to a sudden stop. We both flew into the seats in front of us and abruptly bounced back to where we were sitting.

“Oh children, there’s a mom with two kids walking in this storm, I’m going to turn around and see if they need help.” My mom turned around and we pressed our noses to the cold window. Todd huffed and used his finger to draw a rainbow in the condensation. I gazed out looking for the wanderers. Sure enough there was a mother in a long navy coat, holding hands with two children about the same age as my brother and me. One was wearing red gloves, one wasn’t wearing any. The car stopped and my mother got out. In mere minutes, we had them in the car. The moms talked but I just stared at the kids. I like the girls red mittens but they wouldn’t have matched my coat. My mittens were white and new and I made sure that these snow walking kids could see my pristine mittens. The girl starred back at me. She wasn’t looking at my mittens. She was looking at my mouth as I chewed my hood ties. The knot perfectly fit in the space that used to hold a front tooth. I flicked it with my tongue. The boy without mittens touched my coat. I liked that he wanted to touch it. Todd just sat huffing on the window and drawing rainbows over and over.

The car stopped and we all got out at the gas station. Now it was tradition that every time we went to the gas station, Todd and I got mini Chicklette gum. The moms were using the gas station’s phone and doing grown-up things. The snow walker kids stayed next to their mother and Todd and I picked out our Chicklettes. The snow walkers all got back into our car and we drove them to a house. I ate my Chicklettes and continued starring at the girl with red mittens. She stopped starring at my mouth and when she looked at me for the first time in the eyes, I remember feeling something different about how she looked at me. I didn’t know what to make of it. After our occupants were safely delivered to some house a few minutes away, my mom turned to Todd and I and said, “We were angels tonight for that family. They don’t have a car like we do. Did you see their clothes? That poor boy didn’t even have mittens on and they had been walking for miles. I’m so proud of you for sharing your Chicklettes with those children. “ I didn’t say a word….I hadn’t offered that red mitten girl even one of my Chicklettes.

We said a prayer for that family after they left. I’ve never forgotten them. From that day on I became a person that shares. Remember to always share your Chicklettes.

Five years ago you called off our engagement and left me alone with a barely furnished apartment, a dog and massive debt, and told me that God had sent you a vision and said we couldn't date anymore. I told you that in five years time, you'd be fat, single, and childless. You told me otherwise.

Yesterday I finally got to rub it in your wrinkly, fat fucking face, with your stretch fit jeans that hold your sagging belly flab in, you aged out, femcel wall hitter!

Yeah, I'm bitter... but guess what... I'm right, and that feels good.

OH! This is pertinent because I'm "reminding" her, which "remind" was the challenge, so it's not ALL bitterness.

invite more kindness into your heart

and tenderness into your life;

love freely and openly and don't ever

withhold affection, give it in abundance

because love is meant to be shared and cherished.

Do you remember the breeze that flowed through the trees,

On that afternoon we ran through the field and fell to our knees?

Filled with life and joy,

And a peace that no man could destroy.

Do you remember how it was when the nighttime came,

As stars filled the sky with beauty, bold and untamed?

Or perhaps the time when laughter left you breathless,

While we cartwheeled through the street, happy yet reckless?

Do you remember the time when freedom touched your soul,

As we made our own decisions with no one to control?

As I look back now, all things have changed,

Turned over and flipped, unorganized and disarranged.

But I hold on to the memories from a time that was free,

Just life and laughter, you and me.

Time dissipates into dust and flies away,

But do you remember all that I asked you today?