Roof

the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.

My hair, the flaming roof of my brain, engulfs my thoughts with a red tinged subtlety that few understand.

My fellow gingers know, when you see a flaming roof...

You don't run away.

You dive inside to see what is bubbling just underneath the inferno.

We don't need no water let the mother fucker burn.

oneword: disconnect

the keyboard seems foreign to me. i feel like i might have lost my voice.

i think he took part of it.

oneword: provide

The granite is gray and cold to the touch. It is strange to be standing here, staring across at your name, my fingers tracing the etching of the lily and the cross. My knees cramp from the weight of my torso leaning over to brush off the grass and debris from the winds this weekend.

I am sorry that it has taken seven years to say this, to come back here.

To be honest, the guilt was too much. I should have been there, given you my hand to take and hold onto while the world spun out of control into what I hope was a warm and inviting light.

What kind of granddaughter was I to not provide for you in your last years? Visiting you became a weekend chore, and I let the lure of friends pull me from enjoying what little time I could with you.

My mom talks a lot about butterflies, how they land on her when she comes here, even in the dead of winter. I want desperately to see and feel that, to know that even though I wasn't there for you, a part of you is still there for me.

oneword: blackout

Strange how oneword can sum up my entire junior year of college. I should be poetic. I should be able to relate this word to some sort of haughty metaphor, and then swing back and implicitly tie it back to my life, all the while maintaining a distance in tone that will let me attack myself as if I were someone else.

The only memories I have left are, sadly, the early morning phone calls to someone who would understand. And the crying. There was a lot of that.

And still, there are times when I find it hard to drink and stop myself. I don't make as many stupid mistakes because I can't let myself go back to what I was.

But the truth is, I am terrified. Every time I hold a beer in my hand, or I take a shot, I am just scared.