Wednesday, May 13, 2015

New Poetry

Brown Girls

They stand on the corner
Up the block
Brown girls with heads tossed back
Laughing too loudly
And smacking gum,
Weaves tossing
Painted fingers snapping
Breasts popping
Out of tops too tight
Brown girls with no place to go.

They call out to the boys
Across the way
Brown boys with heads tossed back
Cussing too much
And drinking beer
Pants sagging
Glowing ashes flicking
Hands gripping
The bulge of a crotch
Brown boys with no place to go.

    • Lemelia Bonner

wreck

an explosion, and teen boys
blow through a stop sign
on a darkened street
hit a family man and wife
on their way to wherever and
not on guard
they pass this way every day
but now it's night
and the time is right
for boys to get rowdy
and drive fast
going wherever they're going
going anywhere
they don't care
in a second lives change
a tree there a wall here
and someone screams
as another tosses beer
into a nearby yard
two try to run
but limbs are failing
gas is spraying?
or maybe it's just water
from a hydrant that was hit.
now neighbors are running
from everywhere
people are coming
to see who's hurt who's alive
did anyone survive?
one woman keeps saying
she saw the whole thing
then from a jeep
a call for help
trapped tight beneath metal
now sirens are blaring
and dozens are staring
but only one moves and dares
to pull the woman halfway out
somehow everyone is breathing
heavy, but hearts still beating
and the night begins to settle
back into a cautious calm.

- Lemelia Bonner


The Wait

She sits in a failing chair by the window
and peers through a crack at the edge of the blinds.
There's only a slip of life going by,
but walkers so close she can hear conversations
on phones, to themselves, or a friend across the way.
Cars roll so near that every hiss, horn, and howl
comes right through the cardboard taped in place
on a house that's falling down all around her every day,
But she can't do any better, and can't move much at all.
Maybe she'll just sit here til she passes away
from lack of reason or lack of care.
And then someone will lay her out in a cheap, white coffin;
finally let her become again the dust from which she came.
Sometimes a friend or a son may think to stop by
to see if she's in place, or has an easy need to fill.
But not today, no, today no one comes,
and she's just an old, old woman
with nothing more to offer the world.

  • Lemelia Bonner

Friday, September 17, 2010

Older Essays & Articles

Are Kids Welcome at the Tea Party?
September 14, 2010 11:30 AM EDT -- If not, no problem! I was doing some research this morning, and came across an article in 'People' magazine from Fall '08 about Sarah Palin's youngest son, Trig. I took interest in it because . . . more

Don't laugh. Seriously, don't laugh.
August 14, 2010 07:45 PM EDT -- Especially if you're in court waiting for your case to be heard in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I live a couple hundred miles away but, in general, NC judges don't play! Some knucklehead in the peanut . . . more

It's Purging Time Again!
August 14, 2010 10:38 AM EDT -- With both my teenagers away on sleepovers, I have time to just sit and look around my house this morning, and I am totally disgusted by what I see. In my heart, mind, and spirit, I'm truly a minimalist . . . more

Quickie Poll: Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
August 11, 2010 09:48 AM EDT -- Those (adults) who have experienced the least over the course of their lives are generally the ones who have the most to say, tend the most toward self-righteousness, and often aspire to . . . more

This INFJ Writer Stunned Into Silence - Could this be you, too?
August 10, 2010 10:22 AM EDT -- Normally, I'm one who writes every day. Generally, it's articles and essays, but sometimes it may be nothing but a long response to a post, or a letter to a friend. I'm compelled to write, and if you're . . . more

My Version of The Lemonade Diet
August 07, 2010 11:16 AM EDT -- I can't believe this is actually working. I'm sharing it purely for the sake of others who have the type of problems with weight loss that I have, on the off chance it also works for them. First, a disclaimer: . . . more

'Quisp' Has Returned to Earth! YAY!!
August 06, 2010 09:22 PM EDT -- Yes, my favorite little pink alien from childhood is back on cereal shelves! I just saw a box today, and grabbed as many of them as I could fit into my cart. There were only a few. Apparently, this . . . more

One Way to a Leaner America: Bring Back Medium!
August 06, 2010 12:13 PM EDT -- I really miss medium. I do. Not the TV show, which I've never even watched, but that size you used to be able to order food items in. If you're under the age of twenty, you probably don't know what I'm . . . more

Funny Free Puppy Scam
August 03, 2010 09:48 AM EDT -- You may have come across one of these recently. It was my first time seeing an ad like this on a free advertising site for breeders of new pups, as I've just starting searching for a new family . . . more

The Lost Love of The Letter
August 02, 2010 09:51 PM EDT -- Last night while reaching for a box on my closet shelf, an old Nike shoe box, un-lidded fell to the floor. Picking it up, I realized it was my collection of old letters and cards, some dating . . . more

A Little Too Much Mixing of Faith & Government on Christian Radio
July 30, 2010 11:06 AM EDT -- I usually keep my car radio tuned to the same station. WBFJ in North Carolina serves our local and surrounding area, and appeals to a wide audience, playing mostly contemporary Christian music, and . . . more

Trading An Old Cell Phone For a Porsche?!
July 25, 2010 08:05 PM EDT -- I just skimmed an article about a boy in California who got into bartering on craigslist, and somehow got from his first trade of an old cell phone to a Porsche. A Porsche!! As in, a sports car! I'm not . . . more

Three Things I Can't Believe I'd Never Heard Of
July 24, 2010 11:44 AM EDT -- At least not until this year. I'm no Kim Ung-Yong, but I'm no idiot, either. I paid pretty close attention in school, despite my ADD, and managed to graduate Phillips Exeter with decent marks. . . . more

Extreme Hoarders
July 22, 2010 12:52 PM EDT -- You've probably seen at least one of these hoarding shows over the past two years, right? I try to watch a lot of them, mostly because it makes me feel a lot better about my own messy house. I can now . . . more

*Brad's Beard's Gone, Now Let's Work on Little Zahara, Please!
July 21, 2010 09:27 PM EDT -- I'm as happy as 93% of those surveyed that Brad Pitt finally lost that nasty beard of his. I mean, not only did it resemble a cross between a poorly maintained vulture's nest and an abandoned . . . more

Laughter the Best Medicine For Weight Loss - Stock Up My Pharmacy!
July 20, 2010 08:21 PM EDT -- While weighing myself this morning, and seeing that the number's still holding steady, I remembered something I read online a while back. Seems that a good belly laugh is actually one of the best . . . more

30 Days & Pro-Life Realities
July 20, 2010 12:07 AM EDT -- For the past few months, I've been really enjoying the FX network's airing of the show "30 days." I wasn't aware of this documentary series when it was originally be developed and shown a few years ago, . . . more

A Sunday Message for Those of Us Professing Christ As Savior
July 18, 2010 09:17 PM EDT -- A lot of us (myself included) can spend a great deal of time focusing on the ills of our society. And usually we offer up our opinions of where the problems lie, and who among our citizenry are the root . . . more

*Somebody Call Protective Services! - The Mayflower Moving Mutant Girl
July 17, 2010 07:48 PM EDT -- You've probably all seen the newest Mayflower Moving Company commercials by now, right? They're the ones with the red-headed marionette girl, that have polarized television viewers nationwide. Actionally, . . . more

Mel May Not Be a Racist, Whoopi, But Just a "Bonehead"?!
July 12, 2010 09:14 PM EDT -- I've listened to the full eight minutes of Mel Gibson's recorded phone tirade, and it was painful to get through. I don't think I've ever heard such a string of expletives in my life, especially not any compounded . . . more

A Gather Sabbath for Myself & Message for My Fellow Gather Writers
July 11, 2010 07:12 PM EDT -- 'Gather' can be a really great place for sharing information, musings, opinions, things to make us laugh, and things to make us look deeply inward. I've only been a part of this community for a couple . . . more

The Cost of ONE CVS CEO = The Cost of 1,461 CVS Entry-Level Employees?!
July 09, 2010 01:34 PM EDT -- Are you kidding me?! I don't have much to say about this, because it shocks and angers me into near-silence (I can't ever be completely silent). I'll grant you that a CEO can defend a hefty salary . . . more


A Fundamental Fallacy of the Conservative Agenda
July 07, 2010 03:01 PM EDT -- I was having an online discussion with a staunch conservative the other day, and one phrase kept popping up in their defense of their position that I continued to ponder. It was “entitlement.” . . . more

Get thee behind me, AARP!
July 06, 2010 11:48 AM EDT -- For about eight months now, I've been getting mailers from AARP. Inside, there are bona-fide membership cards with my name on them, and nothing required on my part but activation. Just one problem. I . . . more

'Secret Life of the American Teen'
July 05, 2010 09:30 PM EDT -- Have any of you parents out there seen this show? I watched it with my two teens last season, for about a half-dozen episodes. That was all I could stand. They continued to watch it for a few more . . . more

I'll have just service with a smile, please.
July 02, 2010 07:20 PM EDT -- Today, I had several errands to run, which included stopping in at a drug store, a grocery store, and two other retail shops. In every situation, I got the "Hi. Welcome to (fill in the blank)!" You . . . more

Resurrecting Jesus in Stone?
July 01, 2010 07:03 PM EDT -- Okay, so I Just read an article about the restoration of Rio de Janeiro's 'Christ the Redeemer' statue, back in all its glory after a $4 million renovation project. Reportedly, this was an urgent . . . more

Cursed Bed! - Can Our Relationship Be Saved?
June 26, 2010 11:57 AM EDT -- Every night at bedtime, I brace myself for a confrontation. It's always the same. I turn off the lights, and sometimes put on a little soft, mood music. I enter the bedroom with only the . . . more

North Met South at the Cross Roads
June 19, 2010 12:19 PM EDT -- Except for a couple of years spent at a New England prep school, I've lived in the great state of North Carolina all my life. I can't really imagine living or raising my children anywhere else. . . . more

* to be taken lightly!