athesaurus.com

…breathe deeply and often…

  • There are too many imperfections that bleed over into ugly…

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  • I nodded my thanks and gave each kid a sticker of their choosing. I have ten thousand stickers, it’s the least I can do. 

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  • adoxography

    Hope is what people “hang on to,” whatever that means, when they know they’ve lost but are stubborn and want to disappoint themselves.

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  • Living or Waiting?

    I’m reading. Is that waiting to die or living?  

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  • Shawn will always be one of my kids, even though he’s been a grown-assed man for at least thirty years now. I remember certain students for random reasons. Shawn was a twin, a brilliant one. Blonde, nice looking, a sweeter young man with manners you’d never meet. He was a creative writer, but he’d never…

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  • Multiples

    I don’t know what kind of magic is in a twin, but I know there’s more power in it than science can explain.

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  • Big Tears…

    He was matter of fact, but I was shaking in my boots. I didn’t see this day coming so soon.

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  • Late at night, when Abe took off his hat, he crumbled like a cookie in a coffee cup of doubt.

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  • My trip ended too quickly, but before it did, I made a crucial but wonderful mistake.

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  • Fire

    I learned a long time ago to hide the things you want most, for those will be taken from you first.

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  • Fugitive 

    Image generated with AI. As bad as I hated him, I was losing my mind with worry. I thought I would kill him when he got out at two in the morning and ran across the patio. Instead of stopping, like he usually did, he ran under the fence and disappeared into the night, really… Read more

  • Mom’s Gravy

    Image generated with AI. The house smelled like breakfast. The sausage left a little grease in the pan, but it was pungent and spicy enough to make gravy. Mom added a little butter and the sweet nutty smell peppered the air, then she mixed in flour, enough to soak up the grease and butter to… Read more

  • The Owner

    “It’s never been about what you can’t do, it’s about what you won’t do,” said Jack at the vending machine. He was buying a Snickers bar. “You’re very capable, but if you don’t want to do something, it just doesn’t happen.” He completed his purchase. “Is that a compliment or a criticism?” asked Maggie. She… Read more

  • The Cad

    He looked at her over his arm, wondering what he could get from her. He had good looks and knew how to use them on marginally pretty women. She was smart but not a handsome woman. In a crowd, she blended in, fitted in, disappeared. She’d be perfect. He would make her laugh, feel special,… Read more

  • Superpower: Shapeshifter

    I am still in awe and disbelief. I changed in the span of five minutes one December morning.  I left home one day as a single human being and returned as a mama possum with two babies hanging in my fur. It was just going to be that way.  I became a Shapeshifter. I had… Read more

  • Bellview Baptist Church

    When the Bellview choir sang the old gospel spiritual, it was so powerful it blistered the paint on the walls, Sister Eloise sang with such feeling. When she cut loose on I’ll Fly Away the top of the sanctuary lifted a good six inches up off the walls of the building. The whole house of… Read more

  • There are too many imperfections that bleed over into ugly…

    Read more

  • I nodded my thanks and gave each kid a sticker of their choosing. I have ten thousand stickers, it’s the least I can do. 

    Read more

  • adoxography

    Hope is what people “hang on to,” whatever that means, when they know they’ve lost but are stubborn and want to disappoint themselves.

    Read more

  • Living or Waiting?

    I’m reading. Is that waiting to die or living?  

    Read more

  • Shawn will always be one of my kids, even though he’s been a grown-assed man for at least thirty years now. I remember certain students for random reasons. Shawn was a twin, a brilliant one. Blonde, nice looking, a sweeter young man with manners you’d never meet. He was a creative writer, but he’d never…

    Read more

  • Multiples

    I don’t know what kind of magic is in a twin, but I know there’s more power in it than science can explain.

    Read more

  • Big Tears…

    He was matter of fact, but I was shaking in my boots. I didn’t see this day coming so soon.

    Read more

  • Late at night, when Abe took off his hat, he crumbled like a cookie in a coffee cup of doubt.

    Read more

  • My trip ended too quickly, but before it did, I made a crucial but wonderful mistake.

    Read more

  • Fire

    I learned a long time ago to hide the things you want most, for those will be taken from you first.

    Read more


  • The Last of the Three Wishes

    The genie granted me three wishes and of course the first two came true in a blaze of glory. He told me to be wise with my wishes and I felt that I was, foolishment was meant for sissies, I wanted all my wishes to mean something. To be granted wishes was nothing to sneeze…

  • The Accident

    The first job Lucy had was in Brunetti’s Family Restaurant waiting tables, fast paced and busy. You had to be light on your feet and quick in your head to keep up with the baked steak and chicken and dumplin’s coming out of the kitchen. Who got iced tea with lemon and who didn’t mattered…

  • Remote Learning

    With rigid rigor, the school board called a two hour delay for students in ice and snow before any roads had even been treated after an all night snow storm. Employees were to report on time. In an abrupt change of plans, half  an hour before school was supposed to begin, a remote day was…

  • Hand me downs

    “Let’s go to Goodwill,” said Ian. “I need to get Mom a birthday present.” He knew there was nothing I wanted more than an antique butter dish with a lid, and the best place to find it was at a thrift shop. Goodwill came to his mind first. Thrift shops carried specialty items. Like the…

  • Vocabulary Promise

    The truth is a burning promise I have to live up to or lie about. Truth comes in lots of flavors. It’s easier to lie and ignore what’s in front of me sometimes. Knowing what I have to do to live up to the standards of school, or home, or law. I’d rather live one…