Dark mud squished between toes. The creature wiggles their feet and smiled. Jagged teeth flashed as it stomped about, laughing and lumbering among the trees. Caked on clumps of dried dirt covered it’s head while thick fingers reached out to the sky.

Dragonflies and butterflies darted about. The creature watched them in amazement. Brown eyes, caught in the sun, revealed a kinder, gentler side to this beast.

Flowers began to pop up as the trees thinned and a serene lake shimmered across the clearing. The beast feared the water, but followed its new found flighted friends to the shore.

The mud here squished too, but its feet sunk. The water began to bathe away the dirt. The beast paused a moment and outstretched its hand into the lake. The water muddied, but the hand came out clean. In awe, the creature stared at its massive glove.

A butterfly landed on its fingertip. The creature laughed and smiled. It found peace deep in the woods, away from the scolding it once endured in the far off land from where it came.

Didn’t fit in this world, nor that one either.

Pulling at this skin,wishing it wasn’t confining.

Her heart beats wildly after what she wants, but she is destined to never have it.

A curse upon her for all of this life.

Will it follow to the next? How many times?

Never enough or too much; balance was fleeting and elusive.

Red eyes filled with tears or glazed eyes full of fears. Frozen.

Belonging to a world long gone by, or one not yet arrived.

Set the spirit free to fly, not tied to gravity or needing air.

Let this wretched soul find grace and love.

First world problems, my dear,

First world problems.

Failed to port the number,

That order fell through.

Rocky internet connections,

And no t.v. to speak of too.

A refrigerator on the fritz,

Hundreds of dollars in food wasted

Including several hand trimmed filets

Carved from a beautiful beef tenderloin,

Plus shrimps and scallops, oh my.

Living like we’re camping,

Or vacation with all this eating out,

For a week at least,

Which I really don’t mind,

As long as I can work my 9 to 5.

Him on the other hand,

calling and calling, asking for help,

He misses his dear t.v.

But even he admits,

it’s not as bad as it could get….

First world problems, indeed.

I turned another year older…

What a great gift this week has been…

Jokes on me!

First world problems indeed.

The pages were filled with overlapping thoughts.

The ink from the pen finally ran dry.

She thought she had nothing more to offer,

nothing more to say.

Her mind was quiet finally, but only for a few days.

A fit of anger burst forth…no, not anger.

Frustration? Not that either. Sadness.

The discontent still echoed in her soul.

She had opened the book to release it, to free it,

to let it find air in hopes it would escape,

in hopes the flames would finally go out.

She thought it was bottled up and suppressed.

Now she feared she was feeding it too much

by opening up the book to start,

realizing the flames instead grew.

It became time to put it these thoughts aside,

before it took over and ruined everything.

She closed the book, admiring the cover.

The smell of the ink on the paper reminded her

of a blueline proof prior to printing,

combined with Obsession on a teenage boy.

Another reminiscent memory.

She wouldn’t destroy it, she couldn’t.

Too much of her heart was trapped inside

with the flames, the creativity, the desire.

But it had started to take over her life.

So, she placed it in a hard-to-reach shelf,

knowing, one day, she may pick it up again.

Until then, other endeavors await.

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Thank you to everyone for reading my short stories, prose, and poetry. My posts will be less frequent over the next few weeks, but please continue to check in now and then to see what I’m up to next.

Good night, dear soul.

May your slumber be gentle.

May all your dreams come true,

May your memories of me be kind.

May the future reveal the best for you.

Confusion abound in the virtual world,

How to transition from the physical.

Talks of bits and bytes and CPU and cores.

Where is this cloud, does it float about,

How do we get there, what’s the route?

Oh, the path, the drive, the You-are-Elle.

All these acronyms, what the ach eee double

Hockey sticks!

We can’t speak plain for terabytes and more,

That would shake IT to its very core!

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A little fun on a wild and crazy Tuesday…

Happy computing!