If I say my love is unconditional,
Is that ever really true?
There are some things I require
Of anyone, plus you.

Respect, for one, is paramount,
Kindness is a given,
Treating people well
Is how we should be driven.

Love is not a feeling,
But in the actions, we relay,
Though I say I’ll love you forever,
It’s not the words I say.

I believe that love requires,
Behaviors that demonstrate,
When it’s words alone that define us,
It’s time to detonate.

Thanks to Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) for the prompt! Our takes are a bit different, but that’s…

Thrifty Word Challenge 50: #41 Trance

Surroundings don’t matter when I write. Be it quiet or in the middle of a riot. ADHD’s superpower is my ability to hyperfocus. Nothing else matters in that state. Not people talking to me, not music playing, no natural disasters that may be taking place. Just clicking on the keyboard.

Thanks to Melissa R. Mendelson and The Bad Influence for this prompt Trance.

As a creative Kim McKinney likes having ADHD. Her mind rarely stops, ideas are seldom an issue. When she writes, she writes. Until the time has passed. It may be mid-sentence. She never claims to finish much…

30 Day Poetry Challenge — Day 4

My course was set,
Or so I thought,
Until I was reminded,
I don’t control all.

I wasn’t scared,
Though angry sometimes,
At a system where age
Weighs heavier than skill.

But then I realized,
There could be another way,
Where life could be better,
And a whole lot simpler.

I’m on that journey now,
Decreasing stuff,
Simplifying, Decluttering,
Home and brain.

A few rooms,
Is more than plenty for me,
With the freedom to do,
Those things I planned for tomorrow.

Why wait? Why worry? …

I was looking at my reading recommendations this morning and something occurred to me. The green circles are missing.

What green circles, you ask? Oh, my friend, the ones who tell us who is a paying member of the Medium platform.

I then went to the pages of certain writers and found out that they were missing there, too. Since I was using an iPad, I then went to my laptop. Nope!

I noticed it before, but I thought it may be temporary. I thought maybe with all of the changes to home pages and such it was just forgotten…

Hey you, with the sad face. If I remember correctly, your face was sad last time I saw you. It was also sad the time before that. My heart goes out to you, or it used to, but I’ve noticed that being miserable seems to be your thing.

I watch them — the empaths, the kind ones, those of the “don’t worry, be happy” school of life — as they try to find out what is wrong and help. They spend hours hearing you out. I feel for them. I used to be them.

What — is that a tear…

In 1968 a man died at war. His name was Marvin. I never met him, but let me tell you what I know about him.

His full name was Sgt. Marvin Jerome Gaines, Sr. He was born on April 24, 1947. He died November 26, 1968, in the Phuoc Long Province of South Vietnam. He died of multiple fragmentation wounds caused by hostile fire he sustained on November 21.

He was only 21 years old.

He left behind a wife and a son, Sandra and Marvin Jr.

He was the son of Eliger and Louise Gaines. Louise was the owner…

My mother has Alzheimer’s. It’s a roller coaster, but mostly one that travels downhill. It’s been progressing rapidly in the past year. So rapidly that sometimes I forget the dimensions of who she used to be.

She currently denies every surgery she ever had. These include having her gallbladder removed, a colon resection, and two very painful and invasive rotator cuff repairs. I’ll tell her about them, specific details. No, they never happened — and how in the world can I think I remember her health history better than she does?

The Find

I’m currently decluttering the house I have lived in…