If I can skip a day and not wear any makeup or put styling product in my hair-
I skip and skip and hop away with a song on my lips and joy in my heart
from that part of the day
because sometimes, I just gotta be me-even I’m not exactly easy on the eyes.
Photo A.M. Moscoso
” Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum ” Dells WI October 2025
RDP Monday: FLINTY
I used to walk, quietly, softly up the stairs to my room so as not to make a floorboard crack or moan
When I sat at the table for dinner with my family, I chewed slowly with my head down and I never looked up or met anyone’s gaze
If someone said my name, or called to me from another room would I back into a shadow until they went away. They only ever said my name a couple of times and I heard a sigh of relief when I didn’t answer ‘ I’m here. ‘
I haunted my family, when I was alive and not that I’m not alive I am doing the same to the people who sometimes live in our house.
I had so much practice you see. I am so good at what I do
I had a lifetime in practice in the art of being dead.
Il palazzo degli spiriti
‘The Palace of The Spirits ‘
Romolo Tessari (1868 – 1925)
I really hated school.
I was creep. I was a freak. I had this head full of long wavy hair – and this was back in the 70’s when girls wore their hair straight.
I’d have been bullied too, but the thing is I had a mean right hook and I wasn’t afraid to use it.
But I did enjoy subjects like science and history. I read my text books for fun and then I’d go to the library and find books to read on those same subjects.
One of my grade school teachers looked like Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick and he encouraged me to write and to learn music and play the guitar. I liked him a lot and because I thought he was a great guy I took his advice and those two things are things that I still pursue.
Like I said, I hated school. I viewed it as something to get through. I didn’t make friends, I didn’t join any clubs. The minute I got up in the morning knew it was going to be a bad day.
Being in that hostile environment did nothing to squash my love of history, science and the arts.
When I think about it, that may have been the best lesson I took away from school.
I manage my screen time by reminding myself that the interment makes me feel 1000 times more lonely then I felt before I signed on.
After that feeling sinks in, I go and play with my dog or write.
AI Artwork By: Pumpkin Empress