athesaurus.com

…breathe deeply and often…

  • Snooty Defined

    Snooty defined “‘Brook’ sounds too snooty, use ‘creek.’ You’re always putting on airs. Stop trying to be somebody you’re not, use ‘creek.’” said Mr. Barber.  Shit, he was mean. I didn’t want him looking at my paper, not after what I’d just heard him do to Cynthia’s. He was right, of course, she was always Read more

  • Today I Want…

    Today, I want… Summer is a conundrum. I look forward to summer all year long, to be out of school and away from the stench of curriculum. I want to be away from pointing and clicking at things so trite and mindless that it makes me want to lose what little relationship with a creator Read more

  • Tend

    I tend a heartless garden.  Once bursting with flowers blue ones  seeds tossed from witch’s brooms on full moon rides,  cold ones Belladonna blues widen your eyes enough  show you Jesus through foxglove’s purple haze and sweeten the path with Camomile  Come walk with me. I’ll show you. Read more

  • I Need Seven Letters

    I looked at the board. “MEDICATE.” My letters covered all but the “C.” Upwords, the word game of all word games, and I scored sixteen points plus a fifty point bonus score. “Eat that!”  Nick looked at me with fire in his eyes. Not even his Mama, Express of the Galaxy, Sworn Sorceress of All Read more

  • The Teacher

    Ode to a Teacher Hammat. John Charles Hammat. Unconventional teacher of the universe died last month. Taught for four years, my four years, enough to get one class through, and quit to clean houses and live however he chose. He’d had enough of public schools. He taught Drama and English, but I only had him Read more

  • Didactic

    “Didactic,” something that teaches a lesson. I’ve said that “didactic,” was my favorite word for years. and there are people who will verify this. I’ve been a teacher forever, I can only deny so many things. I  just looked up a bunch of synonyms for it in Thesaurus.com… Academic, pedantic, homelitic, moralizing, pedagogic, schoolmasterist, why Read more


  • Message

    I’ve been to two funerals this week. Two uncles, one from my dad, one from my mom. Dad’s brother had  a military funeral, Mom’s brother had a Masonic funeral. The military funeral had a twenty-one gun salute at the end of it. The Masons chanted and made hand signals. Both were dignified and sent the…

  • A path through the woods

    There were  hundreds of acres to explore and I suppose we stepped through all of them. We walked through the woods for miles, following each other. The path was the one we created, or sometimes the deer or both. They are creatures of habits, the same as we. We had no place in mind to…

  • First Memories

    I have two distinct memories before I could walk. The first one was being held in my uncle’s arms and reaching for my mother. I loved my uncle Paul as much as any six or seven month old can love another human being who’s around all the time. But I remember throwing my body towards…

  • Winter is…is not

    Cold…killing cold.

  • 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…