Cappuccino In Your Kitchen!

 

Yesterday St. Jude’s Children Hospital received a sizeable donation on my behalf from a wonderful company I would like to introduce to all of you, Cappuccino Supreme!  Not only are they a company with a big heart, they also make so many flavors of instant cappuccino it will make your head spin.  Each month they feature a different flavor and offer it at 20% off.  If you like them on Facebook here: Cappuccino Supreme on Facebook you will be kept informed of the latest special flavor of the month.  Their prices are extremely reasonable, just compare them to brands like General Foods International Coffees and you will see that General Foods sells their 2 lb bag of instant cappuccino on Amazon.com for $58.09 compared to Cappuccino Supreme’s price of $6.95 for the same sized bag!  If you like cappuccino, give these folks a try.  Their mixes can all be blended with ice to create delicious frozen cappuccino as well, yum!  This month’s featured flavor is Grandma’s Apple Pie!!  Thank you Cappuccino Supreme for being such an awesome and caring company!

 

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Poppy The Corpulent Basset Hound

So, I’m feeling kind of weird lately.  I apologize in advance.

 

 

 

From two blocks north, Poppy

Would drag his belly to our back door.

I know not why.

Running out to play,

Tripping over his heavy head

Filled with bloodshot weepy eyes

And the lowest frown in town,

Was a summer staple.

 

Barely able to walk

With the legs of a low couch

And the body of an overstuffed olive,

Older than me,

He would only bark once.

What did he want?

 

If it was to mount my brown dog,

A hole would have had to be dug

For her to stand in

so that Poppy could reach.

Maybe he wanted the Hershey bar

That mom always had.

Perhaps,

He wanted to be our dog.

 

We told him, “Go home, go home

Poppy.”  If it was possible,

He looked even sadder

As he walked away, a two block trip

that must have taken an hour.

 

 

 

 

 

4 Comments

2012 Warrior Dash

 

What happens when a 44-year-old woman who has never run a race in her life decides to run the 2012 Warrior Dash on June 17th?  Well, we are about to find out.  I don’t even know if I could finish a normal race with flat roads and nice people handing out cups of water along the way, but now I think I can climb through mud under barbed wire, jump over pits of fire, and climb vertical walls?  I asked my good friend Christine of
http://clblacke.wordpress.com/
 and
http://rumertales.wordpress.com/
 to join me so I wouldn’t be able to chicken out at the last minute.  I’m pretty sure it’s going to be an experience that simultaneously sucks really bad and is also the best day of my life.  After a 5k run through water, mud, and obstacles, they are going to give us a viking helmet, a turkey leg, and a beer at the finish line, so basically it’s a no-brainer.  I just hope that my old unathletic body will survive.  The race benefits St. Jude’s Children’s hospital and funds go to cancer research.  While it isn’t mandatory to fund raise to participate in the event, Christine and I are.  Runners who raise $250.00 for St. Judes have access to the Warrior Tent where there are private showers, free food and drinks, and free bag check.  Since we are going to be covered in drippy wet mud, showers seem key in order to get home without trashing the inside of our vehicles.  I am shamelessly here to beg my blogger friends to please make a small donation to this cause using the link to my fund-raising page: 

Christine Sostarich’s Fund Raising Page for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital

Kids with cancer and the inside of my Toyota Yaris will be ever so thankful for your help!  Pictures will be posted after the event, if I survive. 

 

 

3 Comments

Bursting Plethora of Rainbow Colors!

 

There is a new literary arts magazine embarking on a journey to your mind and soul and counting down to its first issue. I’m talking about Bursting Plethora of Rainbow Colors! 

BPRC is currently accepting submissions of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, videos, music, art, photography, you name it!  It’s going to be a great collection of diverse works so if you are interested in being a part of this new endeavor, please go to the address above and submit your works!  I wish the editor the best of luck and thank him for making another outlet for us to share our talents.

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The Trials of the Lifesaver Storybook

~~~For Joe, the man who has owned my heart for sixteen years.

 

 

We sat cross-legged and wide-eyed by the fire

As the book was placed in our lap.

It was heavy and full and sparkled with foil.

Each roll bound with blood-red cords

We could hardly wait to pull.

 

The first roll split

With our anxious fumbling. Round rainbows

Littered the hearth. There was no way to know

How many rolls remained,

And we shoved the pieces in our mouths

Without really tasting them.

 

I wanted to tear open several rolls at once,

But you hid the box behind your back.

You were trying to lose weight, but I wanted to gain.

Thoughts of halving the rolls amongst ourselves

Must have come to mind.

 

The fire roared and you brought out the box,

Better to eat than to let them melt and waste away.

We decided not to pull the cords like parachutes.

 

You liked cherry the best, while I preferred pineapple.

There were so many sour lemons and ugly limes,

We had to lick them together

To make them disappear faster.

Once in a while we were favored with exotic mango,

And creamy banana.

 

We are still sitting at the fire,

It warms our bones and cracks our faces.

The box is still heavy, though many wrappers

Have fed the flames.  The children

Grab the best colors most days,

And we end up settling for orange and wintergreen.

 

But I would rather eat a whole case

Of yucky colors with you

Than eat only pineapple with anyone else,

And this story is too good

To not have a happy ending.

 

 

 

9 Comments

Expecting

 

Pablo Picasso - The Dream

 

 

Because I hold you in my belly where you squirm

Like a baby, your moods

Make me nauseous and your needs

Hook my spine. 

I am pregnant with you.

 

I pour twice as much wine

To satisfy me, though it’s not recommended.

I am walking slower,

My aversions are multiplying.

 

Like a good host, I try

To only give you nutritious foods,

Drink plenty of water, rest

Often.  But I am human,

Sweets and morsels of fat

Find their way to my mouth sometimes.

 

I want this gestation to last forever,

But false steps bring early labor.

Your red and screaming birth

Could shoot you clear to a free world,

where I will be left alone,

Empty and sore.

 

20 Comments

Spelunking

E.J.F. Greenfield - Antarctic Ice Cave

 

 

You were the black wall of our cave,

Hard and icy, but still,

Shelter. I needed to get down

And snake to you, quiet like

The other snakes and creep up

Next to the spiders

With barbed legs and crooked mouths.

 

I slipped between the bones,

Tried to act like I had always been there,

Because you don’t just walk into a cave,

toss your coat on a stalagmite,

and sing out your homecoming.

 

You changed the pitfalls,

The triggers for tumbling rocks.

If I figured out the game, I tasted

The pure water from your hidden veins

Of cracking gold. But we both knew

That most times I brought the wrong gear,

Spoke too loud, or stepped too carelessly.

 

Only an alien fungus could have flourished there,

And even now

I still can’t see in the dark.

 

 

7 Comments

With Only Her Heavy Shoes To Hold Her To The Earth

 

Edgar Degas - Absinthe Drinker

 
 

         It was like the sky had hooked a wire to her breastbone,

And each pulled stitch of it jerked out a clumsy jig.

The dances were nervous and somber,

And looked like baby birds learning to fly.

 

The earth was hollow and echoed each tap

And spinning slide of her fingertips when she whirled.

There were only the cold wind

and empty longings in her hair for music.

 

Black branches snagged at her skirts to still her,

But they only ripped the gauze to tatters.

 

It was the shoes, heavy with borne children

And clinging like roots of lead

That fastened her to the earth,

saved from an awkward flight home.

 

23 Comments

Poet of the Week

 

For those of you not familiar with the Poetry Super Highway, it is a great poetry newsletter that has been going strong since the 90′s.  (Which is an extremely long time for a publication in the small press poetry world!)  Each week they feature 2 poets and yours truly is one of them this week, woot!  Check them out and throw your hat in the ring if you are a poet.  The editor Rick Lupert is a great guy who works hard for the poetry community and he is a talented writer as well.

 

9 Comments