Daily Post:Sink or Swim #poetry #photography #dpchallenge

I was asked to do this alone

swim the ocean

while they all watched me

carrying a stone

*

lap by lap each travail

those I thought I loved

held their breath

waiting for me to fail

*

society wills the fall

no program teaches me to swim

empty promises thrown my way

til many are nothing at all

*

I was asked to do this alone

swim the ocean

while they all watched

me

carrying a stone

Poetry allows a writer to say things he/she would be criticized for saying. Suffice it to say I easily as a divorced, unemployed, uninsured, mother (did I mention homeless) could have drown in the “system.” Fortunately, I had a role model who, rather than depend on a system that makes one weak,  struck out into the ocean alone.

My hand, filled with compassion, goes out to those who have had to swim in the sea of adversity with nothing but their determination to make it.

The WordPress Daily Post Challenge offered a great prompt for today “Sink or Swim”

Cheers to the others who are staying afloat:

1. Russian Accordionist | Photos to inspire you
2. Perseverance | The Magic Black Book
3. Sink or Swim | Geek Ergo Sum
4. Persist | thinkerscap
5. Sink, Swim or Fly | The Ambitious Drifter
6. Endure | Momma Said There’d Be Days Like This
7. Alone Again Naturally | Finale to an Entrance
8. DEPRESSED OPTIMIST + PAINTS + BRUSHES | Standing Ovation, Seated
9. The deep end of the pool | RPMAS
10. PROMPT: Sink or Swim | AvaLlea’s Blog
11. Silent Agony… | paperdollsletter
12. Doing The Right Thing Can Leave You Lonely | The Jittery Goat
13. I said loudly, in my best English tourist voice, “Does this go to…” | thoughtsofrkh
14. True beauty | Veni, vici, vidi
15. The Tow Truck Driver Drove a Chariot
16. Daily Prompt: Sink or Swim | Awl and Scribe
17. God’s Grace | A mom’s blog
18. Sinking not an option for cowards | crookedeyebrows
19. Women in East : One Perspective ! | Dreams to Reality !
20. Winter Water | The Ring Lady
21. Daily Prompt: Sink or Swim – A migrant’s story | littlegirlstory
22. Daily Prompt: Sink or Swim | Finding Life
23. Whatever It Takes | Lori’s Life and Other Stuff
24. Sink or swim? | Motherhood and Beyond
25. Daily Prompt: Sink or Swim – My Car Buying Experience | The Story of a Guy
26. When life steals your lemons… | Words
27. Perseverance in Harness | Kansa Muse
28. Daily Prompt: Sink or Swim | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
29. Sink or Swim? So limiting… | It’s my blog, innit…
30. Even a Fool Can See | Not a Punk Rocker
31. Learning Patience… | Haiku By Ku
32. Daily Prompt: Sink or Swim | Basically Beyond Basic
33. Daily Prompt: Dive! Dive! Dive! | One Starving Activist
34. The debate | Life is great
35. “By Myself” | Active Army Wife
36. DP Challenge: Sink or Swim « Morning Pages
37. Tree Trials | It’s a wonderful F’N life
38. Sink or Swim? | mineisdee
39. Daily Prompt: Sink or Swim/ Out on my Own | The Smallest of Stars
40. Sing or Swim – Compass & Quill
41. Sink or Swim | Bright Tuesday
42. Drown or paddle | LauGraEva
43. ALONE WITH SHAME | Emotional Fitness
44. Daily Prompt: Scar | Morrighan’s Muse
45. At The End Of My Last Dime! | *Recovery Ramblins Blog Of ~ Author Catherine Lyon*
46. Blue Loft
47. The Glowing Tree | Broken Light: A Photography Collective
48. Glub, glub, glub … (sink or swim) | I Didn’t Just Wake Up This Morning with a Craving
49. Extreme business as usual | Le Drake Noir
50. Treading Water | A Good One

Nothing But Words #poetry #homeless

Do you realize

that some of us

eat food from a can?

No not the kind you open

the kind you pull

refuse

with your hand

I didn’t chose

cold loneliness

a life of no address

a closet in my car

atop my  college degree

oh isnt life a mess

but who cares

do you want to see

the list of things I’ve done

the families, children

whom I’ve helped

yes I have  aided some

the system I assure

it doesn’t care

I’m a number

they’d wish they’d lost

I’ve paid so many dues

there’s nothing left

do you know what  this has cost

and so my friends

words it seems

are all that I have left

stories

and at times a verse

I can’t speak the word ” bereft”

 

what about her? #elderly

I cried
She all alone
I empty hands
Other end of a phone
***
the aged
Fear a lonely end
Some strive to help
Mission to defend
**
you cannot take
What little they possess
Food on odd days
Paying bills is distress
**
then it happened
I was on the line
Facing her struggles
Will you live will you die?

This week we happened to be on the phone with a client as she was having a heart attack; though she had a medical emergency necklace she didn’t know what to do. Our elderly are so frail and need our support – now they fear losing social security. In one fell swoop, we could create a nation wide heart attacks…