I’ve never seen an ice storm in Phoenix.  Frost, certainly.  But never an ice storm.  Not like this.
Maybe cactus spines aren’t long enough for icicles to grab hold of.  Maybe storms filled with ice and vengance simply go where they can hang from trees like pointed reminders of whatever irks you.
But in Phoenix?  Naw.  We just get scorpions in our shoes.

Little girls, no matter where they live, no matter their station … even when they’re skipping rope, sun flashing on their small shoulders … carry the prescience of sorrow.
A young woman’s star dims if she forgets to celebrate the light of others.
A mother is a fierce reckoning; a child is the blood in her heart.
Beauty does not reside [...]

This looks like the wind of change, blowing on the back of That One, spooling his scarf out like the Hope he speaks of.
Whatever your personal political wind, let it take you to the polls to vote your heart, your mind, your convictions.

My favorite new song by Alanis Morrisette. The scenes remind me of the Oregon coast, which I miss so much.

Behold, my body!  It is resilient, malleable.  It thrums within a universe of fluids, cells, structures, generosity.
It breaks and mends.  It is scarred and perfect.  This is my body.  It’s been opened … fingers have touched my brain.  Cells have gathered into tumors like black holes revealing themselves only after growing large enough to [...]

Writing Scared

This is how it goes:
You inch onto the edge of the earth
And with nothing more than
A kite of words

You step into thin air

And you write things that desperately need
More than cloth strips tied together,
And string … and a triangle of
Color in a tumbling, falling world

Do you hear it?  Pffft … Pffft.  That’s the sound of my hands as they brush together, signifying the completion of my illustrious career as a journalist.  It’s been a great gig!  Thanks, HuffingtonPost for kindly publishing my humble submissions.  If you want to get all political and read my opinion pieces, you can go [...]

It’s nearly over — this madness that calls itself, for a better word, an election.  My frantic, migraine-producing work for HuffingtonPost has calmed down to a more manageable dull ache behind the eyes.  It’s now hard-hitting, on-the-ground , microphone-in-the-face reporting for them — something I still can’t do even though I’ve graduated to a walking [...]

I love Sundays.  Do you love Sundays?  I LOVE Sundays.  It’s all about the coffee.  The newspaper.  The soft and languid pace.  A visceral remembrance of a church pew, scented with wood polish and prayers.  Songs that make you cry.  The Body of Christ.  The Blood of Christ.  Another cup of coffee.  Bacon and eggs, [...]

And what a week!  We’re officially in a Big R recession now and some are even worried that we’re headed toward a Big D depression.  It’s worldwide.  All our little middle class boats are stuck in a waning tide and folks are pretty scared.  We’ve just had our final presidential debate where at one point [...]