THE CORNER 4 WOMEN

Friday 3 November 2023

I WILL WONDER by Marva Lee Weigelt

"I WILL WONDER"
by Marva Lee Weigelt

Just so you know
after you die
I will not wonder
why you didn’t do
your dishes or
how long it’s been
since you
cleaned your
oven or microwave or
mopped your floors
or why there were
dust bunnies under
the bed and
behind the door

After you’re gone
I will not wonder
how you could
have allowed the
piles of old mail to
accumulate or
why you saved so
many bits and pieces
of this and that or
why you weren’t
more goal-oriented and
well-organized or
why your refrigerator
contained so many
expired condiments

When you are
absent from all your
familiar places
I vow to avoid wondering
why you didn’t
eat less and
exercise more or
why you waited so
long to stop smoking
or drinking or
whatever else was
simultaneously
soothing and
deadly or
why you took
whatever risk may
seem to have hastened
your exit or why
you left so much unsaid
unfinished or
unresolved

I will only wonder
if you knew how much
you mattered to me
just as you are
as you were when we
met in our temporary
human disguises and
laughed in the
dressing room of the
world at how funkily
our skin suits fit
at times

I will wonder and
hope you knew
you were beloved

I will wonder when
we last hugged
and whether you
felt how our
heartbeats
converged
and our bellies
bumped like boats
and then we
both sighed

- Marva Lee Weigelt

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WHAT IF by Becky Hemsley

"WHAT IF"
by Becky Hemsley 2022

What if the mermaids are all of the women

Cast overboard ‘cause of old superstition

Drowning beneath the waves, gasping for breath

Then forging a tail with the strength they have left?

And what if the dragons, with their breath ablaze

Were once little lizards all thrown to the flames

Choking on smoke and then swallowing flares

Then rising up, claiming that power as theirs?

And maybe the vampires favour the night

‘Cause they’ve been kept in the dark most of their lives

Starved of companions, affection and love

‘Til they have no choice but to feed on our blood

Yes, what if these creatures of magic and myth

Are those who’ve known darkness but chosen to live

Chosen to breathe and to rise and survive

To harness adversity, hoping they’ll thrive?

And what if you too have been thrown to the waves,

Befriended the night and encountered the flames

And so you’ve assumed that you’re destined to burn,

To drown in the darkness -

But what if you learned…

That maybe your story is not over yet

That there are still pages that need to be read

Pages of oceans that you’re yet to swim,

Fiery chapters for you to breathe in

Lines built on words that are so full of light

Of such warmth and strength, they inspire you to write

And what if you choose now to pick up a pen

And write through the night ‘til you come to the end?

And what if you read it back?

Well, then you’ll find

That your story has always held magic inside

Becky Hemsley 2022

Beautiful artwork by Demelsa Haughton Illustration

‘What if?’ is from my second collection

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Wednesday 1 November 2023

WHY DO YOU CHOOSE ME? by Mehendi Guha Roy

"WHY DO YOU CHOOSE ME?"
by Mehendi Guha Roy

My man asked me today, “Love, I hurt you so much then why do you choose me every-time?”

Well baby, love comes with happiness and pain..

You can’t love someone’s good and hate someone’s bad..

I choose you every-time because of the good, because of the essence of us which feels incomplete without your piece of puzzle..

He again said with a heavy heart, “I can’t see you in this pain.. you are better off without me, please be happy..”

Well love, I don’t know about happy but I know that you are my best friend, my unpaid therapist and my home..

The uncertainty that lacks in my life because of your presence keeps me conscious..

The rush of adrenaline that I feel when I see you, digs every muscle of my body, making me feel lively..

I can’t explain that the child in me feels safe and feels tugged in your arms..

The warmth of your breath makes me relive those crunched part of myself, which I threw labelling as ‘waste’ on the way..

“You can’t live with me right love?.. I don’t deserve you isn’t it?.. Please say something baby”, he said as his voice went deep and heavy..

With a lot of courage I managed to speak this time and I said, “I wish you knew how much I love you, that even your faults gets washed away by my tears.. I really hope you knew you much you make me feel alive that even death shivers seeing you by my side.. I want to live but with you right by my side, I want to cry but on your shoulder even if you are the one making me cry, I want to complain about you to you so that the world can’t throw dirt at you. I need you like a passenger needs a shade, I need you like a thirsty person in a desert needs water, I need you in my every breath.. from the day you came into my life I felt worthy, I felt beautiful, I felt deserved.. I really wish you understand that before life crumbles my path..”

—Mehendi Guha Roy https://www.facebook.com/usRaw

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GIVE ME CREDIT by Jun Mark Patilan

"GIVE ME CREDIT"
by Jun Mark Patilan

People give me credit for a lot of things I don't deserve. They say I'm strong, but I just kind of had to be. They only see me in my armour, never knowing I'm trembling inside it. They only hear the "yes" but never the "NO" my heart screams over and over.

They say I'm fluent in silence, but I just can't find the courage to let the words out. I long for funny conversations, too, or even deep ones while sitting under the moonlight. I love listening to people when they talk about the things they're so passionate about. Their eyes always shine.

People give me credit for a lot of things I don't deserve, but if there's one thing they got right, it's when they tell me I'm a dreamer. I really am. And I know I can take whatever life throws my way, put on a mask if I have to, pretend to be strong and fluent in silence if I need to, but I hope that one day, I can just sit under the moonlight, look at the stars, and tell them a lot of things didn't turn out the way I wanted, but it was all worth it, anyway.

—Jun Mark Patilan

Artwork: 700_illust

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THE OLD MAN ON THE PIER

"THE OLD MAN ON THE PIER"
(author unknown)

This is a wonderful true story. You will be glad that you read it, and I hope you will pass it on.

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favourite pier.

Clutched in his bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden bronze now.

Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave. He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and place .

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, to onlookers, he's just another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can seem altogether unimportant, maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and Millennials.

Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida ... That's too bad. They'd do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero in World War I, and then he was in WWII. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks. Most of all, they fought hunger and thirst. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were or even if they were alive.

Every day across America millions wondered and prayed that Eddie Rickenbacker might somehow be found alive.

The men adrift needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service and prayed for a miracle.

They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled his military cap over his nose. Time dragged on. All he could hear was the slap of the waves against the raft...suddenly Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap. It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to grab it and wring its neck. He tore the feathers off, and he and his starving crew made a meal of it - a very slight meal for eight men. Then they used the intestines for bait. With it, they caught fish, which gave them food and more bait....and the cycle continued. With that simple survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until they were found and rescued after 24 days at sea.

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull... And he never stopped saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm", pp...221, 225-226)

PS: Eddie Rickenbacker was the founder of Eastern Airlines. Before WWI he was race car driver. In WWI he was a pilot and became America's first ace. In WWII he was an instructor and military adviser, and he flew missions with the combat pilots. Eddie Rickenbacker is a true American hero. And now you know another story about the trials and sacrifices that brave men have endured for your freedom.

As you can see, I chose to pass this story along as it was passed to me from my father. It is a great story that many don't know...I think it exemplifies a couple of life's lessons to be remembered. You've got to be careful with old guys, you just never know what they have done during their lifetime. It also speaks to me about how we never know what we adversity we might face, but when we put our talent both mentally and physically together, we can overcome, but we must never forget what we learned and to remember to thank those that helped pull us through even if it was as something seemingly meaningless as a seagull and to pay it forward.

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Tuesday 31 October 2023

PERFECTION by Becky Hemsley

"PERFECTION"
by Becky Hemsley 2022

They make you feel broken

So there’s something they can fix

They’ll tell you that you’re fat

So they can sell you dreams of thin

They’ll steer you to bad habits

Then they’ll offer you their help

Then sell you twenty gadgets

So that you can help yourself

They’ll try to bring you down

Just so that they can lift you up

And they’ll make you feel bad

So that you’ll pay to feel good

Then they’ll indulge your spending

So that they can help you save

They’ll charge you to stop wanting

All the things they made you crave

They’ll trap you til you ask

How to escape the daily grind

And you’ll pay to move on forward

When they’ve told you you’re behind

They’ll make you feel empty

So you’ll pay to feel whole

They’ll make you doubt your inner self

Then sell you back your soul

They’ll hook you with a promise

That they cannot quite promote

‘Cause they hold contentment hostage

Then they send a ransom note

So pay no mind to them

And all the things they try to fix

And stop striving for perfection

‘Cause it simply can’t exist

******

Remember that most of our insecurities are bred from someone's need to make us feel less - so that they can offer us more.

Becky Hemsley 2022

Fab artwork by Illustre Mayon

‘Perfection’ is from What the Wild Replied

https://a.co/d/hm2Z86r

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THE BUTTERFLY by Becky Hemsley

"THE BUTTERFLY"
by Becky Hemsley 2021

“Trade me a memory,” the butterfly said

“A memory that’s heavy and harsh,

And I’ll sit and I’ll listen and try my sweet best

To lighten the load on your heart”

So he told her of struggles, of heartache and pain

And he cried as he spoke them aloud

For it wasn’t one memory but lots of the same

That were, all of them, weighing him down

He spoke of a place filled with darkness and fear,

A tunnel devoid of all hope

And the spots on her wings deftly captured his tears

Then softly and gently she spoke

“Thanks for the memories,” the butterfly said

Then she gave him a butterfly kiss

And she took a deep breath as she wistfully sighed

And then traded her memory for his

“I’ve always been me but not always like this

There was once when I thought I had died

I was shrouded in darkness ‘til I grew my wings

See,

I needed that darkness to fly”

********

Becky Hemsley 2021

Beautiful artwork by Lucy Campbell

'The Butterfly' is from my first collection https://a.co/d/cixPqfW

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WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS by Becky Hemsley

"WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS"
by Becky Hemsley 2023

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that

doing nothing is doing nothing

for you.

That being unproductive is unproductive

for you.

We’ve gotten so used to being busy,

so used to doing things with visible results,

so used to tracking our steps and logging our activity and ticking things off our to-do list,

that we’ve forgotten the importance of rest.

‘Doing nothing’ and being ‘unproductive’ are actually doing something productive.

They are helping you recharge.

Recoup.

Reading a magazine or having a bath or sitting in the garden with a cup of coffee are not a waste of time.

Time spent rested is not time wasted.

We are not machines.

We are not robots.

We are not here to

constantly work and move and do.

We are human beings.

And sometimes we just need to be.

******

Becky Hemsley 2023

Artwork by the fabulous Ohkeidea

From my most recent collection: https://amzn.eu/d/73Jq568

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