Category Archives: Life Lessons

Ashes to Dust

sp-overgrown-summer-house

photo by © Sarah Potter

I watch the ivy slipping her green tentacles between bricks, crumbling mortar. And water, brackish or raging white caps, it doesn’t matter. She slowly sucks the shore into the sea and hollows tunnels through massive boulders with a kiss.

We lay pavements, build foundations and walls, and erect iron behemoths to the sky in our attempt to mute her, to contain her. Nature always finds a way to reclaim what is hers. What has always been hers.

Like the remnants of civilizations past sandwiched between layers of limestone and ore, we too are destined to return, ashes to dust.

~kat
(99 Words)

For Rochelle Wisoff-Fields Friday Fictioneer Flash Fiction Challenge inspired by this photo by © Sarah Potter.


Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 4 June 2017

There is little one can say the morning after another round of hate-filled violence. When one of us suffers, we all do, be it at the hands of terrorists or nature herself as she burns and heaves from our neglect and abuse. Blessings and peace to our friends in the UK.

Certain oligarchs may try to separate our nation from the world community, but they do not speak for the majority of us who watch in horror and disgust at their reckless and greedy actions. It’s not important to name him and his ilk. We have seen the likes of them before.

History has proved us resilient in times like these. In our ignorance and refusal to heed the warnings from the past, we may find ourselves doomed to repeat it. But I do cling to the hope that just as our ancestors were able to turn the tide eventually, we too will be able to right the course we are on.

There is still so much goodness and joy in this world. When sorrow looms, remember that we are here because those of good will before us pressed on.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 4 June 2017

darkest of times
was it reincarnation
she teases her clueless guests
just beyond the lattice weave
like the yin and yang
it was much too soon
but the tempest has no power over memories that emerge in the hearts of those left behind
sinkers dipped in morning brew
how the gullible gobble up lies
vile cesspools called sinkers
we can wish
for healing
we are prisoners
again, we mourn

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer,providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.


Magnetic Poetry Saturday 


A trio of streaming unconscious thought…

we are prisoners
dancing our lives
away in concrete
towers, drinking
coffee to stay
awake

sometimes fever
is what is needed
for healing

we can wish
away moments
or sit with
them, feeling

~kat

On the last one I challenged myself to use only one screen of words. It was quite a challenge indeed.


Thin-Skinned Deep


Today was The Great Unveiling. Crorrarq glanced at himself in the mirror. It had been seven years since the occupation. Seven years of blending in under a layer of celluloid, masking his true nature. Crorrarq was one of millions.

The Elders had vehemently opposed the event. “It’s much too soon. We’ve been observing these humans,” they said. “How can we expect to be accepted for who we are when they don’t even accept their own? You’ve seen them. Building their walls, hoarding their riches from the poorest of their kind. Killing each other for money and resources. Turning away those who are weak or different. No,” they warned, “humans are far too barbaric and uncivilized to accept us as neighbors.”

But the decision was made. Votes were cast. The Great Unveiling would go on as planned.

At noon on that fateful day every alien on the planet revealed themself to the humans they had grown to love and who claimed to love them. It was a dreadful day. The humans saw only monsters where once they saw friends. Every alien was rounded up, imprisoned and ultimately executed.

The Elders had been right all along. It was much too soon.

~kat

(199 Words)

For Sunday’s Photo Fiction Challenge based on this photo by our host Al.


Submit – A Haiku


like the yin and yang
to become one who submits
begs an oppressor

~kat

For Haiku Horizons Haiku Challenge, prompt word, Submit.