My Blog Week: November 6 to November 18

All the Latest from Torsade!                                 My mother has gone into assisted living. We’ve all been clearing out the house she shared with her partner—a huge job, with many trips back and forth. That’s been keeping me limited on time […]

From The Impresario (part nineteen)

      The Impresario Part Nineteen   She rubs her cheeks and neck, not for cold If the night feels chill, to her this trial seems welcome She wishes she might bear the world’s pain Enduring all, if by some alchemy He might bide in warmth and tender sleep She slips onto her knees, […]

Note of Glass (poem)

      Note of Glass   Both ordained to meet had threaded each themselves the Past to the Place hers the soul collecting ants and mosses his unfreed, the patriarch beheaded affected lineage in unexpected ways of cashing necks stuck out for losses caps to wear and choices wedded to debt…debt to a woman, […]

Doctrine (poem)

      Doctrine   They said there was a sage and revered man Who for his vows spoke never, but did chant The psalms, his mien aloft of earthly cares And soul among the blessed…this was known A bird of fields, he, counted it a break with God A deeper thing than ordinary sin […]

Who Owns This House (poem)

    Who Owns This House   This room, its walls are painted yellow They call it that, the Yellow Room The corner cabinet…no plane of it Quite fits, the hinges pull My dear, you smile, but I feel the cabinet matters And he will not have sold it It wishes to remain   Who […]

Yoharie (part seven)

Yoharie Valentine (part seven)               The manager’s name was Dawkins. They called him Donk, not clever, but somehow supernaturally right. Donk’s habit was to give Val the eye from hair to shoes… The rape-threatening eye. Val and Sasha liked using this term, laughing over it. Donk always said Valentine […]

The Totem-Maker (part eighteen)

Posted by ractrose on 9 Nov 2023 in Fiction, Novels

The Totem-Maker Chapter Two Jealousy (part eighteen)                 We heard murmurs. Louder, from Nyma: “Everyone is wise in his own way, dear.” Someone else: “He will let his house to their cousins. Spare us if we don’t see hordes! Ah, Madla!” Lom and I looked at each other. […]

All Bedlam Courses Past (part eighty-four)

Posted by ractrose on 9 Nov 2023 in Fiction, Novels

          All Bedlam Courses Past   Chapter Three An Object in Motion (part eighty-four)             It was at least an exercise to think of these things. From Mother’s perspective her panic must be a fit, a freak, it beggared reason. Élucide granted this, fair enough. A […]

My Blog Week: October 20 to November 5

Posted by ractrose on 8 Nov 2023 in The Latest

All the Latest from Torsade!                                     Getting caught up! Here are two weeks’ worth of posts, plus two cartoons.            My Blog Week: October 20 to November 5     Wonderfully Made (poem) October […]

Switch (poem)

Posted by ractrose on 5 Nov 2023 in Art, Poems

      Switch   your living was got by pleasing cats unthreading strings of thin cord and leather letting stains that mark deliberations dashed on places of established quality boundaries where the departed show no signs of rising, stains be left in service to an outreaching new dynamic where the human way, so faulty […]