“OMG, I have hair.”
(It’s a good thing)
“OMG, I have hair.”
(It’s a good thing)
“There is no ‘ill will’ going on here…just people trying to figure out how best to survive and then thrive.”
Then stop trying?
“I will re-seed the lawn areas and cleanup.”
It seemed that her any advance was.
I have to move.
And I am worried.
In pain in levels
And bone weary
“An innovatively-productive way to ensure continued survival – though not always easy.”
End lyrics to the band Yes song “Loved By The Sun,” from the movie Legend.
“While preparing for disaster, also preparing for in case winds somehow shift in my favor.”
She had promised her half of the rent – and would follow through, even if it meant that she had no money to save herself, now.
And she would show up to court, doing all that she could to contain the damage and prevent its further spreading to others.
I will not confront
I will not add spin
I will not reinforce
This negative skew
She had jumped back into service working five days a week.
And on the third into fourth took on damage, with the fifth…
“At least, it will be nice that when I clean up after them, my hard-paid-for efforts tearing at injured joints will show progress for more than only one day.”
“The first time, we lost the funding help because they delayed.
The second, I am now losing everything because they made other plans.
And didn’t tell me.
But then told agencies without my knowing.”
“That first day, it had come – completely different feom the ones before and since.
Seemingly speaking directly to me.
Not full of romance.
Bracing me.
Reassuring.
Encouraging.
Telling me that it wasn’t my fault.
That I had done everything I could.
And to keep going.
Soon after, I rushed out to get to work on time.
And saw the two copies taped onto our garage door.”
“Some people propagate this to gain their own advantage.
Sometimes all one can do it to abstain from feeding into it.”
“Somewhere, my good must be earning interest…”
“How am I going to handle this one?”
I wanted you to think good things about me because I live my life clean and work to achieve.
But now, people are lying about and defaming my character so that they can make other gains.
Shock
Massive betrayal
Incredulity at the unnecessary harm caused
Branded
Hoisting the weight
Locking down
Figuring out how to get it off of me
Shut down
Text pending…
—
Listen to Doing Our Best – Spoken Word 3.5.26.m4a by Candid Corvid Productions on #SoundCloud
https://on.soundcloud.com/gI5Gl74Il7DDtHAz2f
—
(Contact me for permissions)
By Athena Stairs, March 5, 2026
I left my heart in California
It’s still attached by its membrane
You’d think that I could grow another
But there’s no blood for its exchange
—
Listen to FlatLined – 3.5.26.m4a by Candid Corvid Productions on #SoundCloud
https://on.soundcloud.com/N3qTkThgTlMuCn5dgi
—
(Contact me for permissions)
“Yet in reverse you are all my symmetry
A parallel I would lay my life on
So if your wings won’t find you heaven
I will bring it down like an ancient bygone”
(Sleep Token “Euclid”)
“Fleeting moments of glimmering sparks, best remembered as protected.”
“Is definitely not a fecking holiday.”
She had checked in person with the service provider the day before, yet when the important phone call came, her service had been turned off anyway – rendering her incapable.
Again
“The gentle, ‘no makeup look.'”
(An ad)
Lay me down where
Waves reach softly
Gently rinsing away
Tears in The Garden
When the man one day returned, there was only one part of intimacy that he wanted from her.
And he was always “too tired” to reciprocate.
“Affection” is affection, right?
But hollow love makes a hollow soul.
Especially after all of the damage that he had caused when he had left her.
Entitled.
Glorified.
Inhumane.
And then, he prioritized every whim of an abussive narcisist who poisoned anything good and functional.
And he would not break off contact with the prior home wrecker.
And he expected that the woman should defer to him under these circumstances.
And she wasn’t his responsibility – clearly, she was short-sighted.
In fact, she was “too needy” and should “get a grip on reality.”
Then he pursued another female who he claimed was a better match for him.
But he still wanted and needed “access.”
Everything that the woman had ever held sacred was flayed as she was tormented.
Her only way to escape was to self-eviscerate.
—
(Title of a past classic bumper sticker)
Draw me into your movements
Picture-perfect mirror imaging
Catching the timing of waves
Flowing – crashing to ebbing
Wisk my winds into frenzies
To rival hurricane horizons
Then return me gently to shore
Where begin again ever more
“I don’t want to just be this, again.”
They try to crowd in
But I must decide
What takes hold