"1.11.04"

M.,

Here I am again, awakening at the dawn of reflection. All I feel is love for you. All I see when I open my eyes is you.

Within my love for you lives sadness, for the pain we are sure to impart on one another is great, and very powerful. Powerfully painful… and powerfully fertile ground for seeds waiting to grow from our dirt.

The essence of all great love stories’ beauty lies in the truth and tragedy of the human condition.

Tragic is the lovers’ undying determinism to hold on tightly to a force much bigger, and more fluid, than what any human can grip in their hands. Love must not be held prisoner by the hedonistic desires or frightened fists of humans. If we grab at it, we will miss it. (more…)

Promises to Keep, by Kimberley Linstruth-Beckom

Dear Body,

I know I wasn’t very good to you. I would stretch my limits to the point where they were almost ignored. Lifting those washers, dryers, and refrigerators on Monday mornings at that retail store I used to work for probably didn’t help you out too much. Forgive me. I was young and foolish, but what choice did we really have at that time?

I needed to pay off college and send you to the doctor, and the only way to do that was to get paid from the only employer willing to hire a snotty-nosed college grad at the time. We could have tried to smile pretty at the nice doctors, but I don’t think that would have gotten us through the waiting room door. (more…)