Land of the Free
I so love my great
Nation, a land of
Dreams, hopes, and
Everlasting liberty.
Patriotism abounds in
Every citizen’s heart as
New opportunities
Drive the spirit of
Embracing a better life.
Now we gather together to
Celebrate the day we
Earned our freedom!
Dearest country of mine,
America the Beautiful,
You are my true home!
Happy Independence Day to all my fellow American friends and family! May you all have a blessed Fourth of July weekend!
To Be the Middle Sister
To be the middle sister
Is a blessing and a curse.
To one sister, you’re the “better”;
To the other, you’re the “worse”.
When it comes to being older,
You’ve had gifts enough to give
To the younger of your siblings,
Who adores the life you live.
At the same time, being younger
Must have been a challenge too,
Growing up with someone older
Who made life so tough for you.
Yet the sister who’s your elder,
Who pretends to reign supreme,
Is in fact a little envious
Of your life lived like a dream.
But regardless of her envy,
She adores you just the same,
And she couldn’t be more proud
Of the person you became.
So today, my dearest sister,
Please allow me just to say
That I love you very much
And hope you have a great birthday!
Happy Birthday to my amazing little sister! Keep being the wonderful person you are! I love you!
Sonnet to my Favorite Hero
Today, you know I want to do something
For the best father any girl has had.
So here’s a poem that I’ve been writing
To thank you for being the greatest dad!
Thank you for all the times you make me smile
With all those silly words I know so well.
I love to sit and listen for a while
To all the stories you so love to tell.
I’m grateful for the lessons you give me
To help me be the best person I can.
In you, since I was little, I could see
The model of a kind and loving man.
You’re my favorite hero in every way.
I wish you all the best this Father’s Day!
Happy Father’s Day to my amazing dad! Thank you for always being my hero! God bless you always! I love you, Dad!
One Simple Request
Listen, my darling, to this
One simple request, from my
Vulnerable heart to yours,
Every day from now to forever.
My devotion to you is as
Everlasting as the stars in the heavens.
Free me from this
Overwhelming doubt.
Reveal your true feelings,
Else my faith in love may
Vanish indefinitely.
Eternal love of mine, please
Reciprocate my undying passion!
Secret Flower
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
Samantha had chosen her favorite flower when she was young.
Unfortunately, none of the boys knew what it was.
Nobody ever gave her the flowers she wanted.
From roses to lilies, they always missed.
Lenny finally thought to ask her.
Overjoyed, Samantha shared her secret.
Whispered in his ear.
Embarrassed, he grinned.
Ridiculously obvious.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Stained Glass
Red flames
Orange flowers
Yellow sunbeams dancing
Green meadows stretching far and wide
Blue waves
Indigo birds singing sweet songs
Violet shadows looming
Timeless rainbow
Stained glass
Echo
What I saw from
Above you,
Of you,
Is what I see
Into you,
To you.
How could you ever
Fancy me?
See me.
You’re all I want
Before me,
For me.
Yet if you don’t
Believe me,
Leave me.
I saw all the lies
My ego threw you
Go through you.
I see the truth
In you– no, me.
You know me.
And I’ve known this,
For a while, of you:
I love you.
Perfect Shot
(What If? Exercise: Read the description here.)
The archery competition was to be held in the village.
The grand prize: ten thousand coins and a kiss.
He was only here to win the latter.
He’d loved the lord’s daughter since childhood.
Secretly, she prayed for his victory.
He drew his bow steadily.
His arrow flew straight.
The maiden smiled.
True shot.
This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!
Sonnet to my Greatest Role Model
If there were only one thing I could do
To show you how you mean the world to me,
The best gift I could think to give to you
Would be to share my love poetically!
Today I thank you, Mom, for all the love
And care you’ve given me to help me grow.
Your lessons have been great examples of
The wisdom that I someday hope to know.
Your love has nurtured me throughout my life,
And your support has always seen me through.
Your model of a perfect mom and wife
Is one I hope that I can live up to!
For God to bless you always, do I pray.
I hope you have a Happy Mother’s Day!
Happy Mother’s Day to my incredible mom! Thank you for being the greatest role model I could ever ask for. God bless you always! I love you, Mom!
Decontamination
Never leave the incubator unattended.
That’s the first lesson they teach you when you start at the lab. I wish I had listened.
Thankfully, the explosion was contained to the one room. The building has been evacuated as per safety protocol, and the cleanup crew is busy decontaminating the area while the head of the department has me fill out a statement for the report. I’ve never felt so guilty in my life. That’s saying something.
I have a bad history of putting living beings in danger. I squashed my sister’s hamster as a kid, ran over my neighbor’s cat as a teenager, and lost my friend’s dog on the street in my first year of college. And now I’ve endangered at least a dozen human beings by accidentally unleashing bacteria all over the laboratory. Unknown, unpredictable bacteria. There’s no telling what damage I could have caused if I hadn’t been alone when the incubator burst.
The cleanup crew has finished their work and is filing out of the lab. I’ve been told it’s safe to go back inside. While everyone else leaves, I throw on my cleanroom suit and head in to grab my notes. As I pass by the busted incubator, I feel a horrible sinking sensation in my stomach. Years’ worth of research has been lost tonight, and it’s all my fault.
I open my notebook and flip to the last filled pages. I want to figure out what went wrong. Could I have set the incubator temperature too high by mistake? Was there a malfunctioning piece in the machine? Or is this all just happening now because bad luck follows me wherever I go?
A tear splashes on the corner of the page. I wipe my eyes as I take a pen from the table and scribble a quick note about the explosion. After replacing the pen and skimming through my notes one last time, I close the notebook and glance up at the clock on the wall. It tells me I’ve been here over half an hour, much longer than I’d anticipated. Better start heading out.
Replacing the notebook on the table, I hurry back to the adjoining chamber to remove my suit before I head out, but I stop just inside the doorway when I hear voices in the hall. They must think everyone has already left. Standing still, just out of sight, I listen to them talk about the incident. I recognize two voices: the head of the department and the director of the lab. The director is saying it was lucky no one was injured by the explosion, otherwise the consequences could be catastrophic. The results from the last lab mice test came back this morning; they’ve just discovered that the bacteria we’ve been studying induce a lethal reaction in the subject.
My heart starts to race and I break into a sweat, but I dare not make a sound. The department head asks if we should quarantine everyone in the building, but the director reassures him that the bacteria are not airborne; infection only occurs from direct contact with the subject’s blood. Even if anyone had been contaminated, they wouldn’t last long enough to spread the disease beyond this isolated research facility, as the infection is fatal within hours. The head of the department mutters a curse against “that damn clumsy student”. He wishes I had never set foot in the lab in the first place.
I’ve heard enough. Moving away from the door, I turn and hurry back into the lab. This time I don’t bother with the suit, heading straight through the door toward the notebook and pen on the table before making a beeline for the room on the other side of the floor. Tears return to my eyes as I rush past the broken incubator.
All your fault… All your fault…
I’m no stranger to being cursed. Most people who know me end up wishing they’d never met me, usually after my bad luck causes them some sort of injury. Nobody likes me. Nobody ever wants me around. I don’t blame them. I’m a jinx, a curse, a disease.
You’re the real infection…
I rush into the freezer and slam the door behind me. I lean back against the wall, open the notebook, and start scribbling words on the blank pages in the back, important notes to all the people I’ve loved and wronged. By now the tears have blurred my vision so much that I can barely see the letters anymore. Tremblingly, I rip the last page from the notebook and clutch it close to my chest. Now all that’s left to do is wait.
A strange calm overtakes me as I flip through my notebook for the last time. This is best for everyone, I tell myself. Everything happens for a reason, right? Yes, they’ll all be better off this way. Shivering, I get to the last of my notes, the secret of how some loose shards of shattered glass and metal struck me in the explosion.
My strength begins to leave me and I stifle a cough. I close the notebook as well as my eyes and pull my sleeve down, covering the gash in my hand where the glass tore right through my glove. This is how they’ll find me in the morning, tears frozen on my cheeks and a piece of paper clutched tightly in my hand, containing a single word that says everything…
Contaminated.
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