TV Dinner

The school bell rings

And I watch

My friends run out to get their stuff

And catch the bus

And head home

To their stay-at-home moms

With the snacks on the table

All cooked and prepared

Just the way they like it

But here I am

At this after school program

Filled with noisy kids

And exhausted adults

Who only share the desire to

Go home

It’s 7 o’clock

My mom rushes in

Mumbling apologies

While signing me out

She promised she’d be on time

Whatever

I get home

There’s no dinner

No yummy little snack on the table

Looks like another

Frozen TV dinner

Tonight

Down the Beaten Path

The sun has just touched my eyes


Gently beckoning me to disentangle


Myself from these white cotton sheets


Gone is the midnight moon


Making room for the orange tinted glow of morning

That draws back the curtains of dark

And illuminates the landscape of Chios

Observing my own personal Olympus

Enchanted by its barren terrain

Speckled with mastic trees

That somehow remains

So shockingly beautiful


I slip into my running gear:


A light tank and mesh shorts


And I'm out the door


The heat from outside collides with the cool from within


I'm in between the two


Until I cross the threshold and welcome warmth


Jasmine perfumes the air


Balancing the tart lemon scent


From the orchard next door

I guess

The stillness of these stone streets

And the absence of the usual café chatter

And child laughter

Sharpens my senses


And I'm off


Down the beaten path

Following the tracks

Of the produce vendor and his cart

Assuming their approach to Nagos

I pass old women, wrinkled with knowledge

Meeting eyes with each and every one of them

Understanding their past

And present

And future

In seconds time

I reach the rocky beach

And take my shoes off

Allowing my feet to feel the sharp pain

Of the sharp stones

I slowly make my way to the soothing ocean

An uncomfortable path that makes

The aqua water that much more enjoyable

And though I am never ready to leave

I return to the beaten path

After the sun pokes its head out for the world to see

When I get back to the cool marble floors

Of my stucco shelter

My family is still asleep

And my beaten path is all mine to keep

Gremlins

I lie awake in my bed

The street lamp makes the shadows flicker

All those thoughts, cooped up all day

Dance like little gremlins on my ceiling

Teasing me, taunting me, haunting me.

So the night carries on, as does the world

But not I

I lie awake in my bed

Swallowed in sin, strangled in secrets, suffocating in sadness

Until dawn arrives

The sunlight makes the shadows flicker

And even as I watch my gremlins

Dart back to the darkest darkness

I am not relieved

For I know I will see them soon.

Early Bird

There’s something to be said

About being the first to wake,

I sit alone in a house filled with people

Sipping the freshest cup of coffee

That will be made today

I sit wherever I please

With no one to tell me it’s their seat

And I’m the first to read the paper

Before it gets crinkled and out of order

And in this serenity

I welcome the thoughts

That have been suppressed for eternity

With open arms

Because it is just the morning and I

And we can figure it out