November 9
Thief in the Night
The moon ran off the night you left. Instead of west it headed south with you, but I doubt it will stay. You are learning to play a new part, another ill-suited role which I don’t believe you will carry off with much aplomb, though you may have found yourself a kinder critic or a more likened mind. Bad actors have no leg to stand on for critique. What you have taken I can’t expect to return, but what I have gained I will never give up. I don’t think you ever intended me any harm, but protection is something you never provided; something which I was sorely in need of. I was fortunate to return to the house of my father for that is the shelter in which I can breathe.
Ferocity is a gift, but not a toy
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JELLYFISH AND PEANUT BUTTER CARDS
Jellyfish and peanut butter cards
Make for busy days and cheerful nights
Sunlit at the beach and lantern light
Filled with double-decker solitaire.
Camping as a way of life suits some
As they run from their lives
For the more balanced, camp is a temporary retreat
To the overly invested, camping is an aberration
A threat to the foundation of civilization as we know it.
Though I do dread the feeling of coming back
To the life I love and feeling like a stranger
Temporary disengagement estranges me
From the place, the things, the dog.
I need time away,
Variety of experience,
Expanded horizons
I need my entrenched home life.
I need it all and must accept
The clock never stops running
Anyplace on the planet
Even if I am enjoying a good game
With sticky camp cards, regaling tales of man-of-war.
You are reading selections from More Sober on the Way to Sane and Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault
