Read a Poem
The Ride Home
by Vance Voyles
The rain slid shooting stars
across the windshield
as the music screamed
and headlights beamed,
slapping me in the face.
I wanted to shut it off;
the stupid song,
this speeding car,
life's pouring rain,
love's slippery scar.
To find some park,
scream at the dark,
and curse his name,
erase this stain,
before driving home
in silence.
The Ride Home by Vance Voyles. 2024. Used by permission of the author.
About the Author
Vance Voyles is a twenty-year veteran of law enforcement who has spent an inordinate amount of time sitting in long conversations with criminals, making up stories to help them confess their crimes. His fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have been featured in Burrow Press Review, Flash Fiction Online, The Short Story Podcast, Ghost Parachute, Bull, Rock Salt Journal, Creative Nonfiction, Pithead Chapel, J Journal, O-Dark-Thirty, Hippocampus, So Say We All, and Rattle Magazine. His novel, Soldier's Heart: An Evin Walker Thriller, is available on Amazon.
Write a Poem
Today is the 100th day of the year. This being a leap year, we have 266 days left. Write a poem about how you have used your 100 days OR how you’d like to use the next 266.
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One Hundred Days
Taking care of you
Six years of multiple hundreds of days
Never a day misplaced or gone unused
In the care of you
Until you weren't there to care for
No grumpy greetings
No chores
No cooking and cleaning
In the home you asked not to leave
No more taking care of all your intimate needs
That I never thought I'd be able to do
Your gone
No hair to trim, whiskers to shave
Teeth to soak in the plastic container on the bathroom sink
No more helping you in and out of the shower
Or in and out of bed
No more finding you sleeping on the floor
That you slipped to
Never crying out, just resting your head
Knowing I'd find you
Knowing I'd take care of you
Knowing no matter how many hundreds of days remained
I'd be there
To stand behind your chair and kiss your head goodnight
I like the puzzle aspect of this poem--little pieces fitting together, put away and re-evaluated. Very nice!
Day 9
Today is the 100th day of the year. This being a leap year, we have 266 days left. Write a poem about how you have used your 100 days OR how youd like to use the next 266.
Please visit website for successful formatting: https://tovlis.wixsite.com/tovliwriter/tovlis-writings
Just the Beginning. Just the End.
Just one hundred?
All the distance travelled.
Just me, walking.
Still wearing a ruck sack with matching head-band.
Just beings who step lightly.
Nothing to grieve. No walking sticks.
Just strangers on the trail.
They know where everyone lives.
Just ask about sand.
Ill disclose a cemetery.
Just wonder about silence.
Ill plagiarize, or consult A.I.
Just speak of endings.
Ill whistle for a new beginning.
Just ignore the sunset.
Ill remember hatred.
Just blink into the morning sun.
Ill censor the government.
Just stop at 100.
Ill buy new shoes.
Just continue.
Ill ask the voting machine to stop counting.
Just be compliant. Stay on the path
and follow the old men at the front of the line.
Just imagine continuing, eking out whats left of a year.
Imagine how it all ends:
an old man, moving quickly crosses in front of a crowd. It could be Fifth and Main, busiest city in the world. Or, maybe hes a farmer walking to his barn because the cows are calling out in pain and his grand-kids are thirsty for fresh milk. Its possible his wife is watching from the apartment window to be sure after all these years, the old man is not mugged and left for dead. Then again, maybe the old farmer has a daughter who just watches her grandfather tend the stock, and smiles when his back is turned.
The point is, all that matters is the grace in which the old man moves, steps, climbs, leaves, returns. As long as whats leftover fills space with unused holiness there is calm authority. Someone worth following. In fact, a stillness that maintains loosely absorbed world-closets from simply unravelling.
Tovli 2024
the ride home takes on additional meaning
given the author's profession. also like the harmony of the author's name
100days
it has been 4-5 yrs since i read a hundred years of solitude
with its magic of family history and national remodeling
and bananas... My 100 days in this twenty twenty three has not been well read
though despite a local move i have been well fed
by homecooked meals, local dining
and on occasion my favorite cereal as a midnight snack; and so
with 266 days to go, I may rifle through the boxes to finally
pull out some old books, and perhaps make room to
put the xmas
decorations away.
*twenty four ;)