Monthly Archives: March 2015
The Green Lady Speaks
Here are some easy ways to find your happy : Gratitude, look for the ever present blessings, surround yourself with love and solidly good humans, trust your intuition, follow your bliss, engage in life instead of reading/dreaming/hoping for something to happen, make the life you want instead of the life other people seem to think you should have or lead. NEVER do anything that speaks against your spirit.
Filly Ranch with Fleas
There are multitudes of angry words corralled behind her tongue
Waiting anxiously to stampede into the unwary ears of the unforgiven wrangler.
He doesn’t suspect that his lasso of rage would harness responsibility for his neglect.
She is unbridled in her disgust.
She halts without warning, veering suddenly towards the truth.
Although she relishes her saddle for its beautifully intricate design,
she bucks in furious battles against the reason it was placed on her back.
The cowboy remains oblivious to the pain of the branding iron
with which he sears her flesh with his signature as proof of his mortality.
The wrangler arrogantly believes he is bigger, better, stronger than she.
But her spirit hasn’t been broken. Her body is faster, smarter;
more adept at navigating the directional and environmental changes he affords.
She is her own shelter, her own stability, while he is self-oppressed at his hearth.
He is completely entranced and entrenched by his campfire of hatred.
It makes him unaware of her riding away at a full gallop into the sunrise of freedom.
Fighting
I’m being hoodwinked
I’m being mislead from
my firm belief that EVERYthing
matters
It is irrelevant how tattered
my vision becomes or my
failing belief that *I*
can make a difference
that *I* matter
I pick up the tape
and wrap my hands individually
like Halloween candy
Protecting them from
broken fingers
fumbling grasps
Reinforcing my purpose
as if it matters
to ANYone else but me.
I wrap my hands in justice
eliminating foes
with ONE-TWO punches
Powerful with animosity
Strong with furious passion
of faith and
conviction
Does it matter?
Damn right it matters.
It ALL matters
It matters when my eyes
open in the morning
with deep breathing snoring
lovers wrapped up warm
against my ample body
It DOES matter when
I grab my fists from the floor
where I carelessly threw them
after another violent day
of fighting
for what matters.
It doesn’t phase me
to hear the onslaught
of rage streaming
silently from his lips
second thing in the morning.
It doesn’t occur to me
to let him remain split
into shards of himself
It doesn’t push me
But it pulls me
yanks me
spanks me
drags me
slams me
punches me
infects me
bashes me
beats me
thrashes me
It pummels my beliefs,
stomps and screams
tantrums LOUDLY
FURIOUSLY
But I take it because
it matters. It all
matters
I tape up my hands individually
like pocket tissues
cd’s
candy promises
of sweet
sweet
returns
My taped hands protect
them from
broken fingers
fumbling grasps
reinforcing my purpose
with paladin-like
integrity
honesty
all in perpetuity
all into discarded
thoughts of coffee ground fantasies.
It’s all good.
It’s all real.
It all matters.
*I* matter. THIS matters.
My response made me laugh
Letter to a Woman
I wrote the original of this in January 2014. I’m pretty sure it was because I was encouraging someone to think differently. Here is a repeat performance as we enter into bikini season, as the fashion bullshit-o-meter calls it.
Dear Human,
I am reading your posts about someone(s)calling you fat. In our society where a size zero is revered and anything over that is overweight, it’s so easy…so, so easy to think that you’re nothing unless you meet that standard. People, as a whole, don’t care if it leaves you crying when they call you fat. They don’t care if you’ve lost 100 pounds and are still working towards the goal. If you’re not the societal warped version of a body, then you’re a nothing, not a zero because that would be skinny, but a nothing.
When I was young, I was not thin, but I was womanly in my curves. I had a relatively flat stomach until I was 22 when my body flipped me the bird and gained 100 pounds in six months. I felt horrible all the time. Just seeing myself in the mirror would bring me to tears and eventually, I just quit looking. It was too painful and awkward.
At 26, I realized I was dramatically unhealthy. Not just fat, but unhealthy. I went vegetarian and worked out every day for 3 months and went from 256lbs to 159. I kept that weight off for two years, minimal effort, and although I fluctuated a few pounds here and there, I kept my exercise and diet plan clean and clear.
In 1999, I was raped. Unfortunately, that happened to coincide with my thyroid going bat shit crazy and I gained all but 20 pounds of the weight I’d worked so hard to lose. I was back up in the 230’s…high end. With stress eating and hormones flying around like the Wizard of Oz monkey’s, I got suicidally depressed.
2005 rolled around and I moved to TN with my best friend and her boyfriend to live at my father’s house. I had to eat at restaurants for the next two years, and although my weight stayed in the 230’s, I wasn’t really happy. I could look at myself in the mirror, but I constantly tore myself apart. If my boobs didn’t sag. If my butt had a shape other than pancake. If my arms didn’t have bat wings. If my belly didn’t make me look like the Michelin man. So many things I couldn’t like about my body. I further admit that I read celebrity gossip rags religiously and loved the way their bodies looked and dreamed of being like them.
And just like my use of drugs when I was in my late teens, I just woke up one day and said, no more. At first that little voice, that constantly criticized me and told me I was fat, ugly, unworthy, un-loveable, etc. was so loud it made it hard to hear anything else. But, every time I’d hear that voice (whether internal or external) I’d reassure myself that I am okay.
After a while, it became second nature. I replaced all of the bad things I used to tell myself and have told to me, with positive things. I can walk. I can touch my toes. I can breathe. I can do a push-up. I can work harder than most people. I am rather attractive. I am kind.I am compassionate. I’m a helper. I’m a giver. I’m appreciated. I am worthy. I am loved. And the body issues, for me, fell away like the weight so evident on my thighs.
I want you to know that I share this with you because you ARE beautiful. Even with me saying kind things, NEVER believe anyone but yourself. Trust your instincts, ignore everyone else’s opinions because in the end, you’re the only person responsible for your own happiness and the only one you’ll have in your life 24/7/365 until your last day on this plane. You’re wonderful. I guarantee that. You’re compassionate.I’ve seen it. You’re a kind woman to everyone. You’re a great mother and a good wife. I’ve watched you. You’re a devoted friend with a kind heart. Love yourself enough that anyone who objects to your value, clearly doesn’t know your worth.
Sincerely,
Mare, the first wonder twin, Martell
The Ayes Have It
Ukulele Concert
The Bohemian Forest Avenue
Prophet
Feed the Breath
(inspired by Feed The Feesh)
Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m writing poetry or self-fulfilling prophecies.**
It scares me sometimes
To know that I have this “power”
While in the same breath I claim it,
I fear changing my trajectory
Because of the phrase,
“What is written, shall it be so.”
I can’t stop the bleeding of my dreams
That drip onto the paper, absent of color,
In comprehensible words
That only come to life when they are read.
**The first line is solely the brainchild of poet: M.J. Layao









