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


  • Portsmouth

    I need to go back to Portsmouth, UK to where my boys were born. I’d like to visit my neighbors, and hang with them a day or two. We’re good friends and good company. You don’t find that often enough these days.  I’d like to take the boys with me too. We could walk along…

  • But I don’t want to

    “Are you still working? Why don’t you retire?” Everybody wanted  to know because of the silver hair and wrinkles.  Fred asked at the wrong time. Janice was tired and not in the mood. He thought women were silly. He retired early five years ago.  “Why? Do you need someone to take care of you?” Janice…

  • Learning

    I’m too tired to argue and fuss about mess today.

  • Elvis and the Baltic Sea

    Drat, dammit, and O hell, my plans to go to the Baltic Sea for vacation had fallen through. I was at the pinnacle of despair, flustered to the very bone. It was the coffee klatches fault.  Susan’s husband had put his foot down, he said flat out “No.” He wasn’t about to let her go.…

  • Test Day

    It’s the little things that make mountains. Kaiden didn’t want to wear his headphones even though they were a requirement for the test. “I know how to read, why do I have to do this?” He was in the sixth grade, and his third grade reading scores indicated that headphones would be more helpful than…