Tracy McPherson, US

 

Free Verse   Go to your Happy Place   “Go to your Happy Place,” the ad said to go there required passage through the land of evil and sorcery a treacherous trek to an unknown Paradise     Destination Wedding   A Destination Wedding She said, so excited I want you to stand up with me be my Matron of Honor I know you lived on this island maybe you know the minister she spoke the minister's name and the movie rolled into my mind Oh, yes. I know her too well. So, she is putting marriages together now? Is this perhaps her penance for all those she tore asunder? She blew into that little beach town like a summer wind tall, blonde, tan and lovely big brown eyes and a fragile flower air From church gatherings to cocktail parties we all heard her tragic story date raped at seventeen ultimately she married him Twenty years later seeking healing her shrink told her she needed to be “deflowered” in a gentle loving way, to be wooed and seduced by a warm kind man you know, a platter of fresh fruit, chocolate and wine candle light and big floor pillows...soft music slow, sensuous, gentle passion she had lots of volunteers, most of them married the separations and divorces followed her like a trail of yesterdays newspapers blowin' in the wind women who had befriended her, angry and heartbroken. Men who thought to be her gallant rescuer holding their shorts in one hand and attorney bills in the other. Yes, I knew her, so did my former husband.     Whispers   You whispered in my ear I want sexual healing I whispered back OMG go to the clinic and started laughing in a huff you grabbed your clothes stumbling into jeans and boots as you headed for the door did I say something wrong?     Fog   fog slyly peeking in windows stealthily creeps across the deck glowing around the porch light     Loneliness Solitude   This loneliness wraps around me like a cloak it's late and sometimes I wonder is it solitude or loneliness? Yes, both. But oft times it feels better than what happens too often with trusted friends I share a confidence one morning over coffee only to hear it repeated a day or two later by someone else I have to wonder what has happened to the world I am nearly seventy and find it strange that a friendship with a man must be categorized as with or without benefits. Some sort of pollyanna I, thinking there was some sort of decorum in our maturity we didn't have as younger women. Of course, I also thought that dating would be a lovely progression from first date to friendship, courting and perhaps romance. Imagine my surprise to find these old men, if not panting after some thirty-five year old, still operate on the third date rule. I just think I am more mature than that now, not a wildwoman, dancing in the street with some hot guy that wears his 501's well. I never thought my level of intimacy with another person was anyone else's business. It's late and this solitude wraps around me like a cloak.