• Poetry & Flash Fiction
  • testing

Indigo Vales

~ where the writing comes from

Indigo Vales

Tag Archives: fail

Patience For The Queen

17 Thursday May 2018

Posted by Kristine in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

change, death, fail, family, life, love, patience, Saffron Queen, strength, Universe

The Saffron Queen is a dream of blood now. She is garnet and green veins, though she wishes they were blue, strong and heroic like Princess Diana. She is needles and nose mucous, pretty in that blouse she bought for her trip to Puerto Rico, pink lace, denim and sandals she waits for the drip to be done so she can vape her troubles away.

The Garnet Queen’s hands are talons now, gripping, grasping, seeking prey to tear apart on the rocks of her teeth. This lady is no raptor seeking meat, she wants to kill the heart of you with her cruel, crushing words. And now she curls up like a baby and weeps, begging for love, sipping from her “Kwanzaa” cup, lost in a place she did not ask to be. She drifts off and the fear and the hate and the sorrow melt away.

She is Changeling, someone replaced her in the night with someone else, there is no other explanation for why she has gone. She is lost and believes she is alone, no one cares, even though her man strokes her hair and I press dressings to stop the bleed where she pulled out the IV.  She is Changeling, wondering why her children haven’t come, hating them and laying curses on them forever.

A cold front moves in over the ocean, rising thunderheads captured in steel gray and mango moments before the rain, a dramatic photograph she took that sits on the floor of her room instead of hanging proudly on someone’s wall. I like to remember my fierce potted plant friend as photographer lady, the unfinished woman wondering why her children never call, her man working so hard to please her. May her Kwanzaa cup brim with love tomorrow, may the grace of the Universe find her man and fill him with patience and strength, and I’ll not fail to remember the dachshund pillows next time.

This Is What Happens When You Hurry

06 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by Kristine in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

fail, not writing, Rose's book

When you decide at the last moment to head for the shore in hopes of catching some peace, some rays, to try and wash the stain of this guilty pleasure off you before you drive back home where the troops are waiting for dinner, you will forget something.  “Forget something you will,” says Yoda, and right, he was.

I folded laundry and washed up the dinner pots the morning before I left, more as an act of penance than being any good at housework.   Hubby wanted to stay in bed (because who wants to go to work at that hour, of course?) I dropped the bomb on him that I was leaving for the shore. I was going by myself because he does not like the ocean, it’s not his thing, and I wanted the opportunity to have some time alone. My son wasn’t feeling well, so I kissed him on the forehead as he slept on the couch and headed for the shore.

I hit the road happy, hopeful, excited, and driving a little too fast on the parkway. I realized that getting there, the journey, was as much a part of this as anything so I slowed down, slid into the slow lane, and a miracle occurred. I could actually feel myself breathing. That’s right, actual movement of my belly, feeling the air slide down and relishing it the way I love a cold IPA. As I neared my destination, the land dropped out from under me. It all became sky and there she was–mother ocean.

The plan was to spend Day One alternating between beach chair and waves, getting as pink as possible without getting overdone, to listen to the waves, the gulls, the constant breeze which was quite stiff for most of the day.  Day Two would be dedicated to working on Rose’s book.  I have to somehow combine my version and my editor’s version and make something readable. Not as easy as it sounds, believe me, but my laptop was fully charged and the a/c was working in the hotel room. Last night around 11:00 I pulled out the laptop to try and get into the zone and discovered my flash drive had the wrong file on it. Yes, boys and girls, it’s true. I could not work on Rose’s book without my editor’s Word document. All right, stay calm I thought, I have a copy of it from an email attachment. I shall open and save the email attachment and move on with this project.  The hotel has Wi-Fi, so I connected and got to look at silly headlines from Yahoo… but was completely unable to connect to Google. “Page not available.”  Naturally. No email, no document, no Google Drive. Nada. I tried for hours to catch a tiny blip of connectivity to Google but it was not to be.

What happened next has nothing to do with writing and more to do with hurrying. Suffice it to say, the hotel will mail my cellphone back to me because I dropped it in my rush to get to the beach at 5am.  I hurried out the door to my destination, hurried to the beach to catch the sunrise. What else will I screw up because I was in a hurry?  Hopefully not a manuscript that requires care, attention to detail, and the right voice, because not only is it representative of my work, but more importantly, it represents her voice and her life.

Recent Posts

  • A Perfect August Night In OV
  • Metallica & Iron Maiden Before You Knew Them
  • Fourth Of Us….. ?
  • Get Ready For The Next Round
  • He’s Safe.

Tags

amwriting angry woman birds blessings brother change child childhood Choose cycles daughter death destiny dog dream Equality evolving faith family father fear fight fire Flash fiction friend goals grief healing help Henry Rollins hope HoW human inspiration International Authors Iron Maiden justice life listen love march memory morning mother music nature neighbor not writing ocean pain peace poem poem? poetry politics power progress prompt rain reading season silence sleepless social media Solstice son sorting storm sunrise thoughts truth Universe weather woman writing

Blogroll

  • Duotrope
  • Highbrow
  • International Authors
  • Listen to Uncle Stevie!
  • terribleminds
  • The (Submission) Grinder

Social

  • View @indigovales’s profile on Twitter

Housekeeping

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Stay in touch with good ol' fashioned email here at indigovales@gmail.com

Join 124 other followers

Archives

  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • October 2021
  • July 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • May 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Indigo Vales
    • Join 124 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Indigo Vales
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar