Flip-book, Memory Edition by Nancy Schatz Alton I am leaning across the fence. You are backing away. You stitch tank tops. I stitch longing while remembering need: Your need for me gathered in a flip book baby-toddler-preschooler —stop— stop freeze. I am leaning across the fence. You wear stripes, like me. Your hair, long & […]
Author: Nancy Schatz Alton
Fire
Tell me, why does this one precious life feel hard? Even as my mind plays with the word hard. Is it the right word? Is hard allowed when so many have it worse? Why is my mind a trap that cycles me like a washing machine stuck in the spin cycle? Has that metaphor already […]
Skin
I collect heat and retreat. The dog rests on the wooden floor, fur thick and dirty from the smell and roll. Hair and skin cells dot air and surfaces. My wound remakes itself into pink skin. I hear someone call out mom. I reply. Outside noises make me wonder if the call out was mine. […]
Re-frame
I want to write in the third person to get some distance from my flaws. I want to believe Madeleine L’Engle when she writes that our flaws will get us through. I want to tell you that my youngest donned a helmet and a harness and climbed halfway up the rope ladder and almost made […]
Fear & Freckles
The years lay down a soundtrack that no one can fall asleep to. Isn’t that why Buddhists ask us to clear the mind? What do you want to believe? That all is suffering, or that each moment is new? When I take the time to really look at your freckles, I find the path out […]
Advice
Advice by Nancy Schatz Alton “In fact it takes a long time to realize/ your suffering is of very little consequence/ to anyone but you.” –Melissa Stein, from “Seven Minutes in Heaven.” When the suffering comes the entire house sleeps Or it feels like that But the noises tell you otherwise The rain drips from […]
Not Sleeping
The endings pile up and I lay awake at night and think about faith. Not faith in a specific God, but faith that all will be well enough. That I will let go of the outcomes for my kids and they will fly well enough, fly away from me. My oldest stretches and leans away […]
Want
Want* by Nancy Schatz Alton The older I get the more I want to see the eagle’s wingspan opening after he snatches the vole. The more I want to clearly see my place in things. If I’m going to die let me know the ground took every piece of me and made something useful […]
Here Comes The Sun
Here Comes The Sun by Nancy Schatz Alton I coast in on the voices of my children How they sing together at dinnertime Doesn’t that sound glorious? It’s warm like the sun. If I wake up the rays reach me with joy & leave my storyline alone. I catch up: I really hear the […]
Learning to See
I see the picture of the girls’ choir on their weekend trip and my insides lurch with an ache that’s familiar as my daughter’s profile. My girl didn’t go on the choir weekend. We paid for the trip. She never really wanted to go. We planned and plotted and called it scaffolding. The day before […]