HUMAN BEING

EVEN BIRDS

"Wade in the water....
Wade in the water, children 
Wade in the water, 
God's gonna trouble the water...

Sometimes I sing this old spiritual. I don't know why."

Imagination and Reincarnation

"How do you ask them, the parents of the three-month-old with the wet cough, and the wet diapers, and the wired crib, in the hospital room you now share, the small hospital room with only a wispy screen between you (a screen thin as eyelid skin), how do you ask them to please turn out the light?..."

Our Second Night in the Hospital

"Shingles, weathered by white Winters, sap soaked Springs, and the rains of Summer, hug my roofed room in the woods. The interior glows Gustav Klimt gold with ticker tape vines clinging to the layered paint. Scattered on the floor slats is one threadbare carpetbag; one glass milk bottle; one piano bench with skinny legs; one soapbox and one tin coffee can. There is a porcelain dispenser of rainwater and jars for drinking. There is no toilet or television, but a wood stove that sits huffing like a black hog in the corner...."

In the Pines

"I trim her hair for the first time while she sits in soapy warm water. She has wispy strays that pass her ears and form a curly little tail in the back of her neck. Just a teeny trim is all I want to do. I am giving her a midday bath because the egg yoke on her lip won't wash away with a wet cloth and I'm cold and tired and sad and don't feel like leaving the house for awhile. My coffee is on the bathroom sink. It is my third cup, I think. Baby is splashing and I am singing little songs to her about boats and turtles and bubbles....."

https://ifoundapuddleandifellinit.blogspot.com/2016/11/i-trim-her-hair-for-first-time-while.html

Heard in my Privacy

"I vow to fight off EXTREMISM with quiet isolation. I will take vaccines of turned off screens and paper books, newspapers, magazines, conversations, dirt, grass and the company of oak, pine and maple trees. I will not allow the Internet to infect my mind, mouth and ears. For it is a deafening disease, EXTREMISM. I capitalize the letters to show you how big and scary it is. ..."

http://ifoundapuddleandifellinit.blogspot.com/search?q=extremism

EXTREMISM

"In the back of the bookstore, she plays with floppy polyester animals, while I look through picture books. We are the only ones in the children's department. I look over to her often, reassuring myself that she is still here. But then I look and she is not. She's probably just behind that shelf, having found another toy to personify, I think, but then she isn't behind that shelf... or behind that one... or that one..."

https://ifoundapuddleandifellinit.blogspot.com/2018/08/lost.html

Lost

"I put the music on and bump it up to full volume. She is on one side of the rug. I am on the other. Stomping her shiny shoes that shed polyester sparkle like the pedals of metal flowers, she twirls her dress, bounces, and steps. I kick my naked feet and bounce and twirl and stomp too." 

https://ifoundapuddleandifellinit.blogspot.com/2018/10/im-looking-love.html

I'm looking, LOVE.

https://ifoundapuddleandifellinit.blogspot.com/2019/02/bump.html

BUMP!

www.ifoundapuddleandifellinit@blogspot.com

Rachel Braidman