The Battle by Nancy Schatz Alton I am so full of light and dark and I do battle every day. I make a collage out of my world and pray the lightness wins. Lately I have dark, dark, dreams. But last night the end of my dreaming had a spark of light. I was watching […]
Author: Nancy Schatz Alton
Making Pizza Dough
I make time to make dinner for my family even though I’ll be at work when they eat it. It’s the opposite of making them do things for themselves. It’s the ultimate in taking care of someone else even as anyone can argue that my family should take care of themselves. But this making dinner […]
What I’ve been up to since graduation.
What I’ve been up to since graduation is making a life. By Nancy Schatz Alton I want so much more than that: For the crowd to cheer when I wander up to the microphone. To have learned how to wow the crowd with my words and intonation. To not care so much that I make […]
Communion
I’m working in a bookstore now, the local one up the hill. The one I visit when I need to see people, when my office gets lonely, my home emptied out of my family. My husband’s been saying for years that I should work in a bookstore, that it will soothe my social needs. Something […]
A Sum That Led Me Here
A Sum That Led Me Here by Nancy Schatz Alton My center spills into this day; I catch its edges with classical music. The notes promise epiphany; a recycling bin rolls down the drive. I know how long it takes to learn a melody, one line at a time. My brother writes, Remember the thunderstorm […]
Take In The Sky
I’m eating ice cream in my office. I have never done this before. Indulged, alone, during the work day, with ice cream. I mean, I’ve indulged with cheese puffs and chocolates, but never ice cream. I’m at a lull in work, two assignments handed in, waiting for edits. Six stories to research, at the very […]
Seeing
Marge Piercy Plants a Phrase “Some collisions bring luck.” -MP I am the highway at dusk, pink light, Mt. Rainier marks my horizon. I am you, the one that curls into me on the couch, 16 and awake, you color the atoms of this room with everything you see. I am here, looking at trees […]
Difficult And Lovely
It’s OK that things are difficult. It’s OK that it’s dark outside when you wake. It’s OK that another summer has passed, and your babies are young adults. It’s OK that the face in the mirror has sun spots that darken with the sunlight of summer. It’s OK that things are difficult. That human growth […]
August And Everything After
Hours after waking I recall that Aaron came to me in my dream. Sixteen years after his death. I have to count the years on my fingers, like I’m in second grade. Math brings me to the number, but in the dream he was younger than 31, less hairy, apologizing for not telling us he […]
Grey August
The birds shake the tree outside the window. The house fan clicks on and off. We keep the windows shut to keep the smoke out. The day churns as the grey sticks as I grab onto the good stuff. I want so much art out of the every day. I want the small moments of […]