resilience – Colleen Keller Breuning

Scorpion Sting

Scorpion Sting

in land of the free
society lied to me
faded history

hate and evil maims
warfare, drama and head games
mankind is to blame

sheer despair takes wing
sharp like the scorpion sting
truth is everything

the lines have been drawn
finding strength to carry on
hope rising with dawn

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2024
March 16, 2024

Happy Saturday! This week I wrote a quick off-the-cuff haiku series. The prompt combination in the weekly challenge was admittedly tough. This poem is about searching for truth and finding strength to carry on during times of chaos. Some days, you can let your troubles roll off your shoulders, other days it’s as sharp as the scorpion sting. You just have to rise up each day and find strength to get through life.

The word “scorpion” is always a trigger for me! Nearly 40 years ago, I had a close encounter with a scorpion when I lived in Oklahoma. I had seen them outside the house and always steered clear. This happened when I was very pregnant with Vince, with (of course) nobody else in the house. I woke up for work, washed my face at the bathroom sink and noticed something light brown near the sink faucet. Blind as a bat, I put my glasses on and my blood ran cold. It was a scorpion, tail raised with its stinger ready to attack! My face had been about an inch away from that thing! I screamed, but there was nobody to help. How in the hell do you get rid of a scorpion, or should I say, how do you kill those damn things?

In sheer panic, I reached underneath the sink and grabbed the first thing my hand found – a bottle of Tilex. I quickly took aim and doused it. The scorpion lunged toward me, and I jumped, screaming like a little girl. It skittered through the bedroom, as I chased it. Finally, it ran into the nursery, where I corned it and obliterated it with the entire bottle of Tilex. I made sure it was dead, then covered it with a towel for the husband to dispose of later.

Of course, I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time about using Tilex as a weapon of mass destruction. This close encounter left a huge bleach spot in the carpet of the nursery, which reminded me of scorpions each day until I finally left Oklahoma. I will say that Tilex is quite effective as a bug killer, as I continued to use it to eradicate humongous roaches and palmetto bugs when I lived in Florida. Let’s just say I was a lot more careful to only use it on the tile floors.

So that’s my fun memory of the week. I have never seen a scorpion in the wild (or in my house) since 1985, and I hope to never see one up close like that ever again. Have a wonderful weekend, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Xoxo,
Colleen

Mood: doubtful
Inspiration: “Losing My Religion” by REM

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 38.15 – Head Games
Hard Bonus: Quote Tupac Shakur (“society lied to me”)
Easy Bonus: Include a scorpion

Just Like the Stars

Just Like the Stars

She rose with the dawn, spreading smiles,
Laughter and song carried for miles.
Her voice, a beacon from afar…
Her eyes were bright, just like the stars.

She danced across the astral planes,
Neptune’s fog and Jupiter rains.
Twirling beyond Venus and Mars…
Her eyes were bright, just like the stars.

Cold silence broke deep in the night,
Nothing could ever dim her light.
Fragile beauty, branded with scars…
Her eyes were bright, just like the stars.

She rose with the dawn, spreading smiles…
Her eyes were bright, just like the stars.

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2023
August 18, 2023

Happy Friday! And this week it is Writer’s Choice week in Blogophilia, the writing group I belong to! That means we can choose our own prompts and pictures as inspiration to write.

Honestly, I don’t even know where this came from this evening. I was sitting here after dinner, listening to some ambient music, trying to get some inspiration for a poem. Usually all it takes is music or a lyric to get my imagination going. I scrolled through some memorable lyrics I have written down from many years of blogging and I came across the Lyle Lovett lyric “Her eyes were bright, just like the stars.” I just ran with that lyric and crafted a Kyrielle Sonnet around it.

This imaginary girl in my poem is an optimist and a dreamer, who gets beat down in her life. No matter what happened to her, she rose to overcome the difficulties. Her eyes were always bright in the darkness, and her light could never be dimmed no matter what she went through. I believe all of us have this little girl (or little boy) inside of us. Perhaps we have faced difficulties in life that have scarred us or dampened our will to carry on. But we have those scars to remind us how strong we are, what we have been through, the battles we have endured, and proof of how resilient the human soul really is.

Wow, that sounds awfully deep for this poem that sounds like someone just dancing aimlessly through the galaxy without a care in the world! Well, that is where imagination and dreams come in… we need those in our lives, as an escape from harsh realities. It’s kind of like when you just go outside at night and sit and stare at the moon and stars. Don’t you feel a sense of serenity, or that you are one with the universe? It helps to settle down the anxiety when you realize that even though you are but a speck in the universe, you are NOT alone. Well, it is very meditative for me!

So go ahead — dream on, dance through the galaxy, and always keep your eyes as bright as the stars, my dear ones!

Xoxo
Colleen

Mood: Peaceful
Inspiration: “A Melody” by Ralph Zurmühle

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 7.15 – Resilience (Writer’s Choice)
Hard Bonus: Write a Kyrielle Sonnet (Writer’s Choice)
Easy Bonus: Use a Lyle Lovett lyric “Her eyes were bright, just like the stars.” (Writer’s Choice)