Number 2 – RAPE: Rise Against Punishable Eccentricity

The second in this 3 part series by Susan Daniels and myself for RAPE: Rise Against Punishable Eccentricity.

If you missed the first one – Rape Hurts – I hope you view it now.  As well as taking a few moments to read the other powerful messages through the links on the KnowYourStar.com‘s page.

Thank you KnowYourStar.com for giving us a safe place to shout…for some, it’s all we have.

SHE by Susan Daniels, Image by RhondaShe

RAPE: Rise Against Punishable Eccentricity

RAPE: Rise Against Punishable Eccentricity

The link above will take you to their page…but here is what they ask:

  • 1. Write an article/poem related to Women & Women Empowerment and post in your blog.
  • 2. Link back to this article of KnowYourStar.com with a hyperlink so your readers and friends can join us if they are interested.
  • 3. Enter your name and link into the Linky widget. (It should be the post link, and not your blog link in general. In your blog, click on the post title. The URL in the address bar would be the post link.).
  • 4. Read and enjoy as many of the other writers as well. When you read more, most of them return to read yours.
  • 5. Don’t miss this golden chance to impact the society! Let’s change it for better!

In collaboration with my dear friend and fellow blogger, Susan Daniels and her amazing ability to put what we feel into poetry…the following is our response to the challenge!

We did a series of three poems/images.  The poetry is classic Daniels and the images are composites of photos of my own that I’ve manipulated to show what her words mean to me.

Please join the challenge is you feel you can, but if not, Join in the Conversation, visit KnowYourStar.com and read some of the other powerful entries in the effort to get RAPE out of the closet.

Thank you, and thank you Susan.

Number 1 – RAPE HURTS by Susan and Rhonda

Women need simple things
for safety.
To walk alone at night
I want fishhooks and barbed wire
for clothing; vaginal teeth
and a smile that neutralizes acid.

Number 2 – She will post Wednesday August 7th

Number 3 – Stranger will post Thursday August 8th

 

Two Steps…Yeah…Then One

Two steps forward

One step back

Why?

Why ask why?

It does no good

For every day of sun…

There are two of clouds

There’s a lesson here

I know there is

An opportunity to learn

To grow

But when is it okay to say enough?

No more school

I’m tired of school

School of life; school of love; school of fish…

It’s all the same

Two steps forward

One Step back

When we are close to the edge, trying our best

Little things become more than little things

They become

Bigger than we can deal with in any given day

On tHaT day

When is it okay to say

Enough?

Just

Enough!

Ever?

Wishful thinking?

Testing faith?

Thinking we are more important than we are?

Don’t know

Don’t care

E n O u G h

Tired of the tears

Tired of snot running down my face

Tired of feeling life is bigger than I am…

e N o U g H

Pretending is a ten letter word disguised as a four letter one

Take your pick

Fuck…Shit…Hell…Damn…

E N O U G H

Losing a marriage

Losing love

Finding love

Losing love

Losing love again

Finding love

Losing sight

Losing perspective

Losing…

Gaining should be the thing

And would be…

BuT

ENOUGH

Of the one step forward and two steps back

ENOUGH

Of the two steps forward one step back

Just

Fucking God…Enough

ArGhhhh…mY aRm JuST fEll OfF

dEaTh

hEartAchE

fEaR & LoAtHinG iN roChEstEr

MoUrniNg

dArKnEsS

bLinDnEsS

ThE  lAsT  pIcTurE ShoW

😥

😥

BeHoLd ThE FiNaL ShoT bEfoRe  D e A t H  bEcAmE hEr:

Was it me CC? Did I Kill you? Were you sick of the everyday? Were you hoping for something more DrAmaTiC? Damn it woman!
Was it me CC?
Did I Kill you?
Were you sick of the everyday?
Were you hoping for something more DrAmaTiC?
Damn it woman!

LoSt

How Does Your Garden Grow

As some of you know…this has been quite a year for me

A year of losing a marriage of 31 years

A year of therapy and doctors and pills – (over, over, and no mas!)

A year of knowing time is short and getting shorter, with my beloved father; my Superman

Losing our beloved Ripken after only 10 years of furry joy

But also…

A year in which I found hope for new life and new love after 50

However, through it all…the worst of it…I found the best of it

The bare truth, the ugly truth, but the truth, just the same

And there is beauty in that

This is not a sad tale

I’ll say it first; say it loud and clear, my husband and I are together again

And while there are reasons for couples who’ve been together as long as we have been, to find themselves where we did…

There are also reasons to find ourselves where we are now

After we separated and during our time apart, I did find love

And while it proved to not be what I thought and felt it was

I learned I needed the possibility of it

I had to have it

I had to know it was possible

Not with him, as that is done before it ever really began

But knowing the capacity for that kind of love is still in me, has helped me understand

In some small way, that the man I chose 31 years ago deserves nothing less than what I promised him so long ago

And too…So. Do. I. 

It is with his blessing and understanding, which comes from the love and trust I know he has for me

That I am able to put the following out there because I must

For me

It’s closure of a sort

A new beginning of an old story deserves just that…a beginning

And in that same vein, the ending of the new story deserves its say.

And while that love was not, in the end, what I thought it was, it’s better as it is now

Friendship.  And a lifelong one it will be

I have NEVER taken love lightly – Any kind of love – Nor have I ever taken it for granted

But I find I have always needed the kind of love of which I speak and know too that I can’t settle for less

Nor would I want a partner who would either

And it’s there, still, with the man I married

It had gotten tangled in the weeds, but it’s there

My garden is all but free of the weeds now

Mostly clear, and clean, and ready for next year’s bounty

What’s left to be done is this…and it is with love for this someone who has become, if not what I thought, at least what I needed at the time, and what I’ll always need at all times…

A true friend and A beloved one

It’s rarely pretty, this finding love and losing love

It’s not always complimentary, exposing ourselves the way we do

But I love my friend, as much now as ever

And I hope he understands, as I now do, that the truth, given OR received, is never wasted on ones we love:

Rode hard, put away wet
Know the term? You do I bet
But here’s the thing…well, more than one
We all have dreams, or at least want some

We read the words from men like you
Meant to shock, arouse, and lube
Don’t get me wrong, they do all that
But there’s more to see here than that

If you’ll allow, I will explain
In rhyming time and sweet refrain
That which delineates the sexes
It’s more than just muscle reflexes

The matter of perspective arises
Far above your “cash and prizes”
As women go, I’m plain at best
At least the shell, the crust, the vest

But underneath, (not just for me)
There is a fire, so plain to see
But only plain to those who dare
To look beyond the graying hair

The less than fit, the age defined
The stretch-marked bellies, the Swiss cheese minds
Women of certain elegant ages
Have printed upon their bodies’ pages

Their stories of love and pain and laughter
Their tales of lives that we’re all after
But when we fall for men who seek
The more fit, the young, the more sleek

We feel pity more than other
For negate they do, that once their mothers
Were beautiful in the eyes of one
The one they trusted, who gave them sons

But you close your hearts to love and trust
The only thing left is shallow lust
Which produces naught but sweat and cum
May be fine, enough for some

When the end is near in our lives’ journeys
We’ll lie upon our final gurneys
Does one suppose he’s surrounded by
The lithe, the fit, the candy eye?

I fear, my love, that won’t be so
Fear even more there will be no
One at all, regardless of..
The state of fitness..nor of love

For if you set your sites so low
As to allow for only those
That please the eye, the prick, the glands
Forever you’ll dwell in Never Land

Even Peter Pan learned the trick
To not just grow, but teach his dick
That though the fit and the buff
Will feast the eye, it’s not enough

To satisfy a life long need
To touch a heart, to plant a seed
In love and trust, eternal gladness
To have that one to share the madness

Of every day life in every days ways
Of every day love and yes, the haze
Of lust and fear and pain and sorrows
Of knowing they’re there through our tomorrows

My wish, my hope, my fear, my joy
All rolled in one for you my boy
Is that the day you meet the end
You know you’ve done as you intended

For to wait upon the reaper’s time
With naught but wishes to fill your time
Is no way to greet the earth
The final rest, the final dirt

To know you’ve lived and loved and tried
With all your heart despite your pride
To give out more than you’ve received
No more we’d ask, no more we’d need

To face your death with lightened heart
Evolved from apes, from apes apart
Our choices bring us far above
What evolution thinks of love

For apes we are and apes we’ll stay
But apes are not all the same, I say
Some just fuck but some will love
Some for life, some far above

If it were not so, I would bow
To Darwin here, and Darwin now
But for myself, to this I say
Close your heart to love, you will pay

In the end, it’s all we’ve got
That makes us different, far apart
From just biology and lust
That fades, with time, and so does trust

WaG tHe DoG….

What the heck does that mean?

Just this:

I’ve become (dun dun dun)

A PIT-BULL  –  WOOF!

Now I actually know what that really means.

When you find something that you sink your teeth into and can’t seem to let go of because it

just HAS to get done

just HAS to be perfect

just HAS to get out there

Geesh…my doggy-jaw is  E  x  H  a  U  s  T  e  D

For those that visit me here; are friends of mine on Facebook; do the Google-y +1 circle thing with me…you know what I’m talking about.

I’ve been buried in photos, copy, making videos, posting videos, making advertisements, paying for advertisements, and now my social pages are fraught with links to

You Tube

Craigslist

Backpage

more more more!

Our first Open House is this Sunday and all I want for Christmas is a BUYER!

961

In the meantime, however, I’ll keep slogging along, doing my thing, and hopefully not lose what family and friends I have because they are sick of me SeLLing My HoUsE all over cyberspace!

Oh…and did I tell you I have real estate agents?

😆

At least I HOPE I still do…oy what they must think of me!

Thanks for indulging though, now it’s time to go feed the dog!

The Laddie is a Tramp

I cannot, in all honesty, say it thrilled me when I heard the kids had gotten a Trampoline.

With a 12-year-old and 3-year-old on that behemoth bouncy bone breaker, I had visions of head wounds and little fingers and toes caught in the webbing, and mid-air collisions that would result in trips to the emergency room.

However, never let it be said that Grammy Rhoni is not one to ‘give it a chance’.

So, on many a morning during our recent trip to almost heaven…I sat with my trusted and constant companion and just watched.

I’m glad I did and hope you can see why.

My laddie is definitely a TRAMP!

The hours of laughter, sweat, and no tears are worth every wrinkle the idea of this thing gave me!
The hours of laughter, sweat, and no tears were worth every wrinkle the idea of this thing gave me!
my turn
I observed big Alex having as much, if not more, fun than the little Alex dude
But he DID get his turn!
running
What heart wouldn’t melt at seeing the end of such a time?
Mine sure did.
What a sight!

So…I guess the lesson here, for all you Grams and Gramps out there…look before you leap; to conclusions that is.

Supervision, common sense, and a love for life is all that’s needed to make this a safe place to be a TRAMP!

🙂

Bridges

A twist on the twister lovingly known as crazytraintotinkytown. Dallas and I have collaborated twice before this one…her stories, my photos. This time…my photos first, and she wrote the story around them. I love it and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do…it’s one of my favorites so far.

I hope you notice the header on Tink’s page as THAT was the original challenge photo.  A series of photos of Bridges.  The photos in the story were inspired by Tink’s writing.

If you’ve not picked up the gauntlet and collaborated yet….do it! It’s G R E A T! So, without further adieu, “Bridges” by Dallas Dyson at Crazytraintotinkytown.

crazytraintotinkytown's avatarCrazy Train To Tinky Town

This is another of my collaborations with the stylish and very elegant Rhonda over at 50 Shades of Gray Hair. This one was more of a challenge for me as Rhonda supplied the pictures and I wrote the story around them. I have loved working with her and not only is she a great photographer and a perfectionist but a generous spirited soul too. So on behalf of myself and my team-mate we hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

I opened the letter with trembling hands; the one that I had been waiting weeks for. It had arrived in the morning post but I had crumpled it into my pocket and delayed reading it until my Mum had left for work. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share it with her but I just didn’t want to feel guilty either.

Mum and…

View original post 773 more words

687 Miles to Sloppy Kisses…

It’s been over a year and a half since I’ve seen my grandson Alex, who turned 3 in April.
I can think of nothing I’d rather do than share the next few days with you as we get reacquainted and fall in love all over again…

The Journey:

flag collage 1
The first 200 miles
Old Glory flies high and
Gas prices do too
140 miles more before we leave the high cost of living in the Northeast behind…
post collage 3
The layover at halfway
Storm on the horizon
Unwanted voyeurs
One who is thankful for the break.
345 miles to go for sloppy kisses…
Water, water, everywhere...and not a drop to drink! Oh...and a windmill.
Water, water, everywhere…and not a drop to drink!
Oh…and a windmill, of course.
300 miles more to giant hugs from little arms
farm country collage
Tooling down the Blue Ridge Parkway headed for the home stretch
Silos and Barns growing out of the Corn
and oh….
Crackin’ the Barrel on every corner!
200 miles and we pop the top and pull the cork.
The Kudzu Climbs The Gas Prices Fall And the Caverns are Cavernous!
The Kudzu Climbs
The Gas Prices Fall
And the Caverns are Cavernous
100 more to their front door.
The first hello is always shy...but give him time, our little guy.
The first hello is always shy…but give him time, our little guy.
play ball collage
Next thing you know they’re playing ball
Basketball, football, soccer and all
Running, shooting, fetching, “no fair!”
I’m goin’ swimming…hop in gram, we’ll share.

So ends the first day…worth the trip and worth the  heat.

Stay tuned for the next installment…getting down on the trampoline then popsicle parties and bubble magic.

🙂