Lynn

2023-05-12 09:46 pm

Dear [insert name of co-worker or supervisor here],

It was [insert positive noun or adjective here] to work with you. I always admired your [insert dubiously positive quality here, be snitty or passive-aggressive if you so wish]. My favorite memory here was the time when [insert vaguely positive memory here; if none, insert successful venture here; if none, indicate that there were too many positive memories to choose just one; or if that even feels too disingenuous, skip directly to next paragraph].

I wish you [circle one or more: prosperity / health / joy / all the best].
Sincerely,
[sign name here]

[remember: be POSITIVE! your time here was WONDERFUL! you gained SO MUCH experience! you made TONS of friends! you leave on GREAT terms! the BEST! ]

Lynn

2022-04-14 10:00 pm

away from work is time for family
away from family is time with myself
away from myself is time to write
away from writing is time to work

Lynn

2022-01-25 11:14 am

the first time i heard
the word
was in the third grade 
as teacher taught us, piously, of the price He paid

as He felt the spike rip though
tearing his palms asunder, in two
He pleaded, Father, why me?
why must the sacrifice i be?

the first time i understood
the word 
was in the sixth grade 
as i started the decline into womanhood

as I lay, fetal, on the bathroom floor
and the blood soaked my legs and the pain a dull roar
I prayed, a desperate plea, Mother, why me?
why must a woman I be?

Lynn

2020-10-29 11:27 pm

these are the golden years, the golden day, she says
like the sunrise or the sunset? i say
both. or neither. she says 

do you miss it? she says
your youth, i mean.
i know. i miss it. i am still young. it has been torn from my chest and weighs on my hips and i miss it. i say

how was your birthday? she says
better than before, i say. 
before what?
the moment it became my birthday.
were you gifted anything? she says
on which birthday? i say
all of them. or none. she says

do you think we could preserve this moment, cast it in gold or bronze or iron? she says
no. 
who said that?

i pick up the mirror and drag it home. 

ten, nineteen, two thousand and one. 

Lynn

2020-08-04 11:53 pm

it’s no longer july
not a cloud above the sky

august breeze rips through the car window to tear at my hair

the only choices i make are both feet on the gas and no hands on the wheel
this is the only way i truly feel healed

will these be my halcyon days?
anhedonia thickens brain fog into an impenetrable haze
even high beams won’t make a dent in this maize

true ambivalence comes at the cost of change
have any coins in your innermost pockets?

Lynn

2020-06-07 12:25 am

i see sunday mornings beyond my time.
does sunday still exist?

i see my history yawning out before me.
can corpses exist on both edges?

i see my mother.
can grief follow a child out of the womb?

time, death, and life roll the die to see which takes their turn first.
west and north argue over the sun while east and south clutch each other, wailing.

god's suicide passes through us
concentric circles of chaos
look, there is too much blood in the streets!

Lynn

2020-04-26 07:53 pm

I am a infinite work in progress.
Who I was yesterday is not who I am now is not who I will be tomorrow.
However long it takes me to answer, the clock keeps ticking.
The past increases, the future recedes.

I'm not me, I'm a traveler.
Whatever I do, wherever I go, it will pass.
When whenever ends, finally I will know rest.
Peace.

Lynn

2020-03-10 01:15 pm

is a cardboard fortune cookie more reliable than the red lace of fate?
which is more powerful, the man or the legend that precedes him?
(or is it succeeds?)
who are we to assign arbitrary hierarchies to the world?
(putting ourselves on the crown)

our sanctimony has carried us, and it will bury us.

we do not need to be the best:
simply good and kind