Tag: divorce

Ribbed

Angela Townsend

You may be able to count my ribs. If we press through the fat to count yours, not one will be missing. I gave it back. I gave them all back: the rib, the ribs, the ring, the ringing in my ears. I would have given Eden to be your Read more

Angela Townsend

As Development Director for a cat sanctuary, Angela Townsend bears witness to mercy for all beings. This was not the vocation she expected when she got her M.Div. from Princeton Seminary, but love is a wry author. Angie also has a B.A. from Vassar College. She has lived with Type 1 diabetes for 32 years, laughs with her mother every morning, and delights in the moon. Her work has appeared or will be published in upcoming issues of Agape Review, The Amethyst Review, Braided Way, MockingOwl Roost, The Palisades Review, and The Young Ravens Literary Review. Angie loves life dearly.

Jazz

Doug Hoekstra

When I got divorced I realized early on that I had to look at What I was gaining as opposed to What I was losing When I did, I found much to consider With all due respect Because this is the nature of the universe A place beyond words Invented Read more

Doug Hoekstra

Doug Hoekstra is a Chicago-bred, Nashville-based writer and musician, educated at DePaul University in the Windy City (B.A.) and Belmont University in the Music City (M.Ed.), whose prose, poetry, and non-fiction have appeared in numerous print and online literary journals. His first set of stories, Bothering the Coffee Drinkers, was published in April 2006 and earned an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY) for Best Short Fiction (Bronze Medal). Ten Seconds In-Between, his latest collection of short stories, was published in June, 2021 on Better than Starbuckspress. Hoekstra has also worked extensively as a singer-songwriter with eight albums of original material on labels released on both sides of the pond, propelling touring throughout the U.S. and Europe, at bookstores, coffeehouses, clubs, libraries, pubs, festivals, radio stations, and castles; solo and with combos in tow. Musical highlights have included Nashville Music Award and Independent Music Award nominations, as well as many groovy happenings. 2021 also brings a new album of music, The Day Deserved. ("A lot of people write songs, Hoekstra writes five minute worlds" - Wired Magazine).

Eruptive Uncoupling

Ronna Russell

At Temple Bar with T, discussing experiences. She looked out the window, not meeting my gaze. Turning her cocktail on its napkin. She told me her roommate had shown her a profile picture on a gay website of someone they thought looked like my husband, Robert. Barrel chest and a Read more

Ronna Russell

This chapter is an excerpt from my memoir "The Uncomfortable Confessions of a Preacher's Kid." No one escapes religious cults without sexual damage and I was no exception, nor was my father. He came out as gay in mid-life, as did my own husband decades later. The oppression of religion tentacled into my self perception and took decades to unthread. This chapter shows how I got started reconnecting to myself. While I had no difficulty leaving religion behind as a teenager, I had no experience interacting in the secular world, like a real-life Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt without the humor and good looks.

For James

Elisabeth Horan

Hey man, it’s ok. It’s me. You don’t have to do this anymore. My name is just a name. The rope was just a rope the weed was something helpful – at least that part was fun. I left you, and I am sorry. I wasn’t as strong as you. Read more

Elisabeth Horan

Elisabeth Horan is a poet mother student lover of kind people and animals, homesteading in Vermont with her tolerant partner and two young sons. She writes to survive and survives to write - We are all battling something. Let's support each other. Elisabeth enjoys riding horses and caring for her cats, chickens, goats and children (not necessarily in that order). She teaches at River Valley Community College in New Hampshire.

First Comes Love, Then Comes?

Deanna Keller

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Deanna pushing a baby carriage. Most of us grew up singing this little ditty in the schoolyard when our friends expressed their “love” for someone of the opposite sex. The expectation set forth as children was to “grow up, get married and Read more

Deanna Keller

Growing up under the hot Kansas sun, Deanna Keller spent many hours sitting under the apricot tree with her nose either in a book or writing in her scruffy notebooks, carefully composing stereotypically bad teenage poetry with a number two pencil. Exploring writing as an adult, she found her voice blogging about her observations and musings surrounding life under the pen name, Avie Layne, which she has done for the past five years. Additionally, she has been blogging for The Journey Seeker and has been a guest blogger for OMighty Crisis. Creative Writing classes at college opened her eyes to the idea of short stories for young adults and ignited new writing passion--many based on the stories of her parent’s poor childhood growing up in the Ozarks of Arkansas in the late 40s early 50s, while others have been based on her own crazy life. Deanna completed her undergraduate at The College of St. Scholastica in English I 2017. Taking a 1-year break, she will continue on to a Master’s in English then on to an MA-TESOL at Arizona State. She plans to pass along the love of reading and writing to future students and assist young writers in finding their own writing voice. Currently, she provides free community writing workshops geared towards journal and personal story writing. Deanna’s motto is, “Never let anyone prevent you from reaching for your dreams. The only failure is in not trying.”

Vehicles and Men

Connie Cook

If it has tires or testicles, it’s going to give you problems. The bumper sticker was catchy and summed my life up to a capital T. I reckon I’ve had as many relationships as I’ve had cars, and at the age of 62 years, that could really add up. Fortunately, Read more

Connie Cook

Connie lives in Port Credit, Ontario, Canada and when she’s not working at her real job as a Registered Nurse, aka the one that pays the bills, she writes. Her short stories have been published by Pacific Magazines in Australia, commuterlit.com. Many moons ago, she wrote a weekly children’s fiction column for the Guelph Mercury. She also admits to being a servant to her two black cats. Her short story about one of them was published by a Chicken Soup for the Soul series titled “My very good, very bad cat.” Connie’s motto is “nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Women With Wings

Jude Walsh

During my routine OB appointment, my doctor mentioned that my nipple “looked a little funny.” I had noticed that too. She was fairly certain it was eczema but wondered aloud if I might be willing to have a dermatologist check it. As I had a mole on my neck I Read more

Jude Walsh

Jude Walsh is now more than five years post cancer. She still listens to Libana and still sees smiling children when she hears What a Wonderful World. Retired from education, she focuses on writing now and is grateful for all the new women friends this has brought into her life. Jude writes memoir, personal essays, fiction, and poetry. Her work has been published in Mothers Always Write, Flights Literary Magazine, Indiana Voice Journal, The Manifest-Station, The Story Circle Network Quarterly Journal, The AWW Collection, and numerous anthologies including The Magic of Memoir (2016).

Leaving My Ex Sparked Decades of Unintended Consequences

Lizbeth Meredith

“My name is Precious, how can I help you?” “I think I need to go to your shelter,” I blurted. My daughters, still both in diapers, were wailing in the background. The battered women’s shelter. Never had I thought I would be a battered woman, or that I would live Read more

Lizbeth Meredith

Lizbeth Meredith's memoir Pieces of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters is a 2017 IPPY Award silver medalist. She blogs at www.lameredith.com, is a contributor to A Girls’ Guide To Travelling Alone by Gemma Thompson, and is the author of When Push Comes to Shove: How to Help When Someone You Love Is Being Abused. A former domestic violence advocate, Lizbeth has worked with at-risk teens for nearly two decades as a juvenile probation supervisor.