Books Coloring Page
Contributed by Bonnye Matthews
Consider the thought of dinosaur fossils and a launch in one thought. Something alive more than 65 million years ago tied to an event that became routine in the twentieth century, where satellites were placed in rotation around the earth from a rocket?
Can you even get your head around 65 million? It’s easy to imagine ten or one hundred, but 65 million! “Launch” is a satellite orbit send off? Today when a new book is coming out, its first event is referred to as a launch. This book launch is for Arctic Dinosaurs of Alaska, a middle-grade fiction that nestles in a surround of non-fiction. The story takes place 70 million years ago in Alaska. Here are some freshly-posted netgalley reviews of this book: www.netgalley. com/book/263031/reviews
The story follows eight species of Arctic dinosaurs through a year. The species in the story are: Pachyrhinosauruses, Alaskacephales, Dromaeosauruses, Ugrunaaluks, Ornithomimosauruses, Troodons, Nanuqsauruses, and Thescelosauruses. In Arctic Alaska they’d experience long times of sun all day and night, as well as long times where the sun never rises above the horizon. At the time these critters were located
close to the North Pole, they were very close to the geophysical point where all the lines of longitude meet, forming a point around which the earth rotates. Dinosaurs were lizards! How on earth in winter did they stay warm? It snowed! There were months with no sun. Light was limited to the moon, stars, aurora borealis. Up on the northern slopes in Alaska, the land is flat. Forests were thin. What kept winter wind from blowing dinosaurs, like roly polies, all over the place? How did the plant eaters not starve to death? They had no winter gear or fast-food shops. The book speculates the answers. For millions of years the dinosaurs not only survived, but also they thrived. They were smart.
Arctic Dinosaurs of Alaska is chock full of images that you can color. It’s not a coloring book but you can color in your book. There are four editions and two cannot be colored in the books: the Library Edition and ebook. So, here’s how to color them. There is a coloring page download section on the publisher’s website where you can download over 40 illustrations. Do you know who the father of Alaska dinosaurs is? It’s in the book. Do you know what the land— where the USA is—looked like when these dinosaurs walked Alaska? It’s in the book. The climate 70 million years
ago? It’s in the book.We’ve looked into the dinosaur part. How about the launch part? We were invited to launch Arctic Dinosaurs of Alaska at the Alaska Museum of Science and Nature. It’s located at 201 N Bragaw in Anchorage. The building is hard to miss with dinosaurs and megafauna painted on the exterior. What a wonderful opportunity! You can tour the Museum and buy a book in the same trip. The place even contains fossils of Arctic dinosaurs!
In the Museum, look up and you’ll see a realistically huge pterosaur. It could eat me entirely in a single gulp. On the wall you’ll find a Troodon, and on a shelf, you’ll see the tiny skull of an Alaskacephale. The Museum is filled with amazing finds.
There is an admission fee: Members free, Senior (60+) $7.00, Adult 19+ $8.00, Military with ID $7.00, Youth 3-18 $6,00, Toddlers (under 3) free.
The launch is August 20, 2022 from 1-4pm. If you purchase a book (paperback and hardcover books will be available), you can have the book signed by the author, Bonnye Matthews, a local Alaskan author who primarily writes prehistoric fiction.
We hope to see you there!
Marlo, Age 7
Tate, Age 11
Books
IMAGE CAPTION: Alys and Bill sort books in the VCRS bale storage area. Contributed by Alys Culhane
When I first heard the word abundance, the image that came to mind was that of cornucopia, a horn overflowing with fruit, corn, and other edible produce. This was when I was in the third grade, and Mrs. Scoville was showing us images related to Thanksgiving.
The term abundance again surfaced shortly after the inception of the Bright Lights Book Project in, January 2019. This is when I and BLBP co-founder Bill Schmidtkunz began unloading the contents of the first of several Gaylords, chest high cardboard boxes, filled with books. This was at Valley Center for Recycling Solutions.
“Abundance,” said Bill, opening a new copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. “Yeah, “abundance,” I said, handing him a well-worn copy of Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations.
We presumed that we’d find audiences for the books in the Gaylords, and for the umpteen boxes of books stacked high on pallets. I estimated that it would take five months to go through these boxes. I’d then resume attempting to make my mark as a writer. I knew that I had achieved literary notoriety when Pete pulled Raudi’s Story, from one box, and Bea Adler pulled Road Songs: Essays on Exploring New Zealand, from another box.
Bill and I, as well, seven other volunteers, are still working at getting VCRS and other books into the hands of appreciative readers. The local literary cornucopia is overflowing and spilling onto the floor.
The spillage came about last March, shortly after the Alaska Daily News ran an article on the BLBP. The next day I received close to 50 emails in which I was asked if we were accepting donations. The day after that, I received 70 emails. I’m now averaging a dozen
emails a week. Most of these inquiries have come from Alaskan residents, with the remaining few coming from the Lower 48. I have yet to turn anyone down, with the exception of those wanting to part with textbooks and encyclopedias. I say in my heartful response to the latter, “sorry, we just don’t have the room.”
We’re continuing to take donations from VCRS, family libraries, thrift stores, bookstores, individuals, and those writers who, having an excess of their own books, hope to reduce their burgeoning inventory.
Why so many books here? Palmer is unique in that it’s a literary crossroads for reading material. Since the Colony Days, those either moving here or passing through have innumerable books with them, this including cookbooks, gardening, and fiction and nonfiction. Many of these books have been inscribed with names and dates. Still, the source of innumerable books remains a mystery. For instance, how is it that a donated private collection yielded a copy of The Kentucky Thoroughbred
carries a copy of Anna Karenina in his fatigue blouse on a long march needs another book.”
The BLBP volunteers have managed to keep pace with the influx of books
Our high placement rate is due to the fact that we quickly became adept at determining who the audience for most works might be. Many of the books that first crossed our path ended up (as has the Hollingsworth book) in our home libraries. We then began offering books to the public, most of which can now be found on bookcases that we’ve placed in area businesses. And although there is an abundance of good books, there seems to be a shortage of good bookcases. (See our website: www.brightlightsbookproject. org for a list of bookcase locations.)
And we began shipping them to villages. We’ve also been passing out books at summer events. For instance, the Palmer Museum donated outdoor space, which has enabled us to pass
summer. The Goose Creek Correctional Facility recently took 10 bins of books, for distribution to inmates.
We’ve dealt well with abundance, but now we are attempting to deal with overabundance. The BLBP book storage area is now in several places, these being the Church of the Covenant/ Meeting House and the U-Haul Storage facility. We have also stashed books in a garage, a goat shed, and a cabin. We need a central location with enough storage space for all incoming books. This will better enable us to access sought-after books and hold onto books in which the audience has not yet materialized. In this way, overabundance will again become abundance.
We all live to make our third-grade teachers proud. I’m sure that Mrs. Scoville would be pleased to know that her former student took the idea of cornucopia one step further, by making an analogy to an overabundance of books.
MAILING ADDRESS
Contributed by Felicia Desimini
The MatSu College Art Department has just what artists and non-artists need! Explore Art and improve your art-making skills with us beginning this fall! In 15 weeks, if you apply yourself, you will learn life-time skills, improve your work, or find an amazing hobby!
Painting and drawing classes put loads of ‘POP’ in your style! Our Color Design course is perfect for anyone who
Poetry & Prose
SEWARD
SOJOURN
By Randi Perlman
doesn’t understand how colors interact and are used to entice your audience.
If Music and Theater strike a chord with you, or if you think Broadway (or Valley Performing Arts) are calling, the College offers 3 courses in these disciplines during the upcoming fall semester. Music and theater are fundamental - the Ancient Greeks used music as the framework for their educational system!
Does learning a bit about visual culture interest you? It’s everywhere, influencing almost everything we think, do, and say. For this reason, an Art Appreciation course will help you navigate the art world, from prehistory to Banksy and the Global Art Market. Want to delve even deeper into the History of Art? Then the college’s offering of Western Art History I is just the course for you!
Beginning Drawing ............. ART A105 ...... Felicia Desimini
Color Design (web) ART A112
Barbara Laucius
Art Appreciation (web) .......... ART A160 ...... Barbara Laucius
Art Appreciation ................ ART A160 ...... Felicia Desimini
Beginning Painting ART A213 Felicia Desimini
History of Western Art I ......... ART A261 ...... Barbara J Laucius
Music Appreciation (web) ....... MUS A121 ...... Meghan Aube
Music Appreciation MUS A121 Naomi Stamoolis
Stained Glass .................... ART A180 ...... Karen Urroz
Theater Appreciation (web) ..... THRA111 ....... Matthew Sale
A misty, cool and overcast day as the ship heads out thru Resurrection Bay
What will we see as we travel the fjords that will elicit excitement from all on board?
Just out of the harbor an otter appears, already that sight is allaying all fears
Continuing on gentle swells, we traverse a landscape the captain knows well
Ah, here come the sea lions, all packed in a bunch, but what is that odor, and just before lunch?!?
And speaking of that, it’s a pleasant affair; the staff at Fox Island provide bountiful fare
Goldeneye ducks dive for lunch in the lake while hummingbirds dart ‘round at breakneck pace
Back on the water, birds thrive in large numbers Kittewakes, gulls, cormorants, puffins
Murres, guillemots, eagles & murrelets, Some building their nests on the sheer rocky cliffs
Where mountain goats also are seen high above; down below harbor seals rest in a cove
The wildlife sightings are truly delightful, the maritime setting provides quite an eyeful
Dall’s porpoise entertain us, like mini Orcas, while majestic fin whales swim close to escort us
But the pièce de résistance of this fruitful journey, are
the heavenly humpbacks on their epic sojurns
Tall ‘blows’ in the distance reveal several groups, the occasional breach stirs up all the ship’s troops
But when bubble-net feeding right next to the bow, their precision together demonstrates how
When we all work together for a common good, we can always accomplish much more than we could
As one individual, or one humpback whale, Just one small adjustment - gigantic in scale
Ahh, the wonders of Seward, all wrapped up together Another of Alaska’s other-worldly treasures
We are so very blessed to live where we do Hope your summer includes a sojourn or two…
Contributed by Barry Dorman
Singing is fun, isn’t it? But singing with others your own age makes it even more fun! If your child is in the first through eighth grade, then they are invited to join the Mat-Su Kid’s Chorus which resumes its weekly rehearsals on September 8 under the direction of Sharon Theroux.
Sharon is passionate about music and has shared that love with children and young adults for over 20 years in the Anchorage area in both her own private studio and as a teacher in the Anchorage School District. She has earned two B.A. Degrees in Vocal Music Education and Speech Theater and has
Books
Contributed by Sharon Aubrey
Dr. Kerry M. Olitzky, rated by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in the US, partnered with Relevant Publishers LLC of Sutton to launch his latest children’s picture book, A Whale of a Tale: A Sabbath Summer Solstice Story. Rabbi Olitzky has authored more than a hundred books on Judaism and Jewish living. In his new book, he explores the difficulties of telling time for the Jewish Sabbath during the long Alaskan summer solstice.
Dr. Olitzky wanted to help children living in far northern or southern hemispheres understand there are a few different methods used to calculate a Sabbath day. Yet, in spite of how the Sabbath is calculated, having extra time to reflect on the gifts it brings is a blessing. Traditionally, Sabbath (called Shabbat in Hebrew) is determined in Israel a few minutes before the sun sets on Friday evening until Saturday, when one sees three stars in the sky night. In Alaska and other countries where we live closer to the north or south pole,
done further studies at the University of North Texas, internationally known for their jazz program. While in North Carolina, she studied the Suzuki teaching method and most recently traveled to Finland to be mentored by the founder of the Suzuki Voice Method.
Ms. Theroux is strongly committed to building mentorships for young musicians and
connecting them with performing opportunities in their communities. She herself continues to grow and learn through various musical collaborations as well as through her work with the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
While learning the basics of voice and singing, the children under Sharon’s direction will
be preparing to perform alongside the Mat-Su Community Chorus at their Christmas and Spring concerts. The kids meet for practice on Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 at Mat-Su Evangelical Covenant Church, 5201 East Mayflower Lane, Wasilla. (Please note that the church does not sponsor nor has it any affiliation with the Kid’s Chorus other than providing a rehearsal venue.)
There are two terms per year which run from September to Christmas and January to May and the cost is $80 per term. If your child is interested in joining or you just want further information, please contact matsukidschorus@yahoo.com
children never see a sun set or stars in the sky around the summer solstice. They often wonder how they can tell when one day ends and another begins?
Through the adventures of Tova who travels to Alaska during solstice and speaks to the animals, young children everywhere can explore how to know when the Sabbath day begins and ends. A Whale of a Tale: A Sabbath Summer Solstice Story continues to receive wonderful reviews from many inspiring Jewish teachers and authors.
“All we need is Shabbat - time out to fully engage with those we love and the magical world around us. Simply told and beautifully illustrated, ‘A Whale of a Tale’ is a book for the whole family.”
—Moyra Irving, author of Amelie Trott & The Earth Watchers
“Though children can learn much about the laws of the Sabbath, what the book captures is even more basic - the essence of its meaning. Set at the
time of the summer solstice, the Shab bat experience is both extended and enhanced in a way which will touch every parent and child who reads A Whale of a Tale.”
—Rabbi Norman J. Cohen, Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion
ISBN 978-1953263087 paperback, $15.99
Service
The theme for the 2022 Alaska State Fair provides a greeting to this year’s fair. There is so much to see and hear: different foods to experience, exhibit halls and barns to explore, music to enjoy, stages and tents for entertainment, and lots of exercise to walk the trails. (For those with disabilities, wheelchairs and carts for babies are available at the
fairgrounds. Service dogs are allowed on the grounds. Connect with the AlaskaStateFair.org for more information.)
Thinking about which day to come to the fair? The Hoskins Building offers a variety of demos. This list may help you decide day(s) that offer presentations, skills and exhibits in which you are interested.
Demonstrations are offered from noon through 4 pm.
Friday, August 19 – Learn how to make Rhubarb Scones; Homemade Onion Rings; How to use a Freezer Dehydrator; Gelli Printing.
Saturday, August 20 – All Ages Paint a Ladybug Rock; Learn to Sew a Potholder; Healthy Trail Snacks; and when emergencies happen things to have on hand to Shelter in Place.
Sunday, August 21 – Learn to make (and taste) a Chocolate Cake made
with beets; Make a Notebook using Recycled Paper; Make A Mini Preparedness Kit; Enjoy Chocolate Nut Clusters.
Thursday, August 25 – Make a Beaded Bracelet; See Orange Truffles Being Cooked; Learn to do a Quilt Collage, and Gelli Printing.
Friday, August 26 – Chocolate Covered Strawberry Turkeys, Wearing Purses and Back Packs Correctly, Magnificent Mushroom Meals and Gummy Bears will be discussed and shown.
Saturday, August 27 – All Ages Paint a Ladybug Rock, learn to make a One Dish Greek Chicken, Build an Alaskan Home and Affordable Heat to Extend the Growing Season.
Sunday, August 28 – Enjoy Vegetable Treats, Make a Notebook using Recycled Paper, Foods to Enhance Beauty and Quick and Easy Candy.
Thursday, September 1 – Make Peanut
Butter Balls, learn about The Pollinators, Gelli Printing and make and take beaded earrings.
Friday, September 2 – make a Felt Heart Pin to take, learn how to grow a Giant Cabbage and to make sauerkraut, then to do a Chocolate Cabbage Leaf Bowl.
Saturday, September 3 – Make a Fabric Tissue pack Cover to take with you, enjoy a Quick and Easy Fruit Salad, learn to make Whole Grain Bread and Use a Dehydrator.
Sunday, September 4 – Make Folded Wash Cloth Duck to take along, learn to Raise Chickens in Alaska, Emergency Preparedness for Pets and enjoy Quick and Easy Candy.
Monday, September 5 – Make a Pencil Holder with duct tape to take, learn to wear Purses and Backpacks Correctly, Ways to Preserve Food and enjoy Nut Clusters.
Contributed by Diane Paoletti
Pastel Society Alaska invites you to our first plein air event!
Anyone interested in learning more about the Pastel Society Alaska or just painting with new friends is welcome to join us. You do not have to be a member to attend. This non instructional event is open to all artists painting in any medium, or anyone who would just like to come and unite with other artists or make new friends.
This plein air event is taking place Saturday, September 10, 2022 , from 11:00 am – 4:00pm.
It will be held at the old Matanuska Bridge, Palmer.
If planning to attend, please make sure to bring your own art supplies, along with anything else you think you may need… lunch, water & if you’d like, a snack to share. You may also need a sun hat or easel umbrella, bug repellant, lawn chair, etc.
Directions to the old Matanuska Bridge are as follows: Go to Palmer & on the Glenn Highway, turn onto Arctic Ave (Three Bears gas station & Fred Meyers gas station on each corner). Follow Arctic approximately 2 miles to the old
Matanuska Bridge on your left, where parking is available.
Our Facebook page - Pastel Society Alaska & our Instagram page - @ pastelsocietyalaska will be updated on September 10, in case of inclement weather, so please make sure to check there for any changes of location.
Questions? Email us @ pastelsak@gmail.com
We hope you can join us and look forward to meeting you!
Contributed by Sharon Aubrey
Salmon Survivor by Christian A. Shane releases August 15th in bookstores. Going beyond a Middle Grades fishing adventure book, this novel inspires readers to understand their place in nature through fishing and fly-tying while helping them navigate the rough waters of loss in life. Mr. Shane, a middle school teacher, recognized many students in his school had difficulty healing from the loss of a
Books
Contributed by Carmen Summerfield
Would you like to share your stories about the best, the worst, and the silliest of everyday living in Alaska? Coming soon, Season Nine of The Alaska Home Companion—A Frontier Variety Show!
The 2022 Wasilla Episode will be broadcast live on Saturday October 22 from the historic Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry (MATI) gallery next to Wasilla International Airport.
The Alaska Home Companion—A Frontier Variety Show! is the Valley Arts Alliance rendition of a live radio broadcast from the golden age of radio, with skits, music, and dance acts, similar to the popular Prairie Home
parent or close relative or friend. This inspired him to write about the parallel between the cycle of life and death in salmon and people, as a gentle introduction to grief and recovery. Readers follow Jack’s Alaskan experience as he processes his father’s life’s purpose and subsequent death and continues to gain new relationships and discover his own path.
The unique cover art for Salmon Survivor is a compilation of two Sockeye salmon images designed by Sheila Dunn, an artist who has been inspired to save salmon through art. Featured in Catch Magazine, issue #71, Ms. Dunn’s images were inspired by her concern for the Bristol Bay watershed salmon.
She donates proceeds from her art sales to The Wild Salmon Center, to help protect fishing ecosystems. Her work is also featured on Bend Cider from Oregon.
Synopsis: Twelve-year-old Jack Cooper unwillingly travels with his mom from Pennsylvania to Alaska to meet his grandfather for the first time after the unexpected death of his father and fishing partner. Over the summer, Jack challenges himself to do something his dad never accomplished. He attempts to catch the Alaskan Salmon Slam: all five species of Pacific salmon. Jack encounters more than he expected fly fishing in the Last Frontier. As he learns about his father’s past, Jack struggles to get along with a grizzly fishing guide and enlists the help of a sled dog in his Salmon Slam quest. Battling through grief, Jack traverses the path back to himself and discovers a surprising parallel between the cycle of life and death in salmon and the loss of his father. As Jack’s father used to say, “It’s not called catchin’, it’s called fishin’.” Nothing comes easy, especially in Alaska.
Reviews for Salmon Survivor in the literary and fishing communities have been fantastic:
Companion radio show on NPR. For those of you who haven’t seen or heard one of our episodes, The Alaska Home Companion—A Frontier Variety Show! features interesting stories by Alaskans about the best, the worst, and the silliest of everyday living in Alaska. In previous episodes, we heard from The Roving Reporter, Guy d’North, and The Sommelier, as well as news from Lake Willowa and Mukluk Radio.
The 2022 season is our ninth year pro ducing The Alaska Home Companion— A Frontier Variety Show, and we will continue with new music and dance acts, occasional impersonations of local celebrities, and will be occasionally broadcast live by Radio Free Palmer on 89.5 FM.
Auditions will be held Thursday September 8 at our weekly meeting at
Salmon Survivor is poignant, funny, dramatic, educational, and above all entertaining. Do yourself a favor and read this book to learn about salmon, to learn about Alaska, but especially to learn about why we fish, and how often that it’s less about catching fish than connecting with friends and family.”
—Chris Wood, Trout Unlimited CEO
“Salmon Survivor is a classic adventure story that harkens back to the wilderness survival tales of Gary Paulsen and Jean Craighead George. Great for reluctant readers.”
—K.L. Going, award-winning Middle Grades and YA author
“While navigating a storyline involving loss and grief, Christian interlaces fly fishing for salmon to an audience that will fall in love with the challenges and tranquility the sport brings so many.” — Tim Cammisa, Trout & Feather producer & author of Fly Tying for Everyone
ISBN: 978-1953263063
Price: $14.99
Sophia’s Café, 11am until 1pm. Sophia’s Café is located at on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway at 9191 Frontage Road, phone 745-9001. If you can’t attend the auditions, please contact Carmen (at) ValleyArtsAlliance (dot) com.
So, mark your calendar! The Wasilla episode of the VAA Alaska Home Companion—A Frontier Variety Show! will be broadcast at 7pm Saturday, October 22, 2022, at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry in Wasilla. Tickets are $15 and are available at the door. A cash bar will be open during the event.
To see exciting scenes of these episodes, visit our Archive Pages at www.ValleyArtsAlliance.com.
HAPPY MEADOW
By Katherine Baker
A happy meadow concerns me, as earth’s dwellers are apt to see, a lack of uniformity, and then will help that place to be, void of such non-conformity.
TO MY DENALI.MOUNTAIN,
By Cherime MacFarlane
The mountain is edgy today, Gray clouds edged with light, Here and there a golden ray.
I’ve seen it in another form, Not a cloud in sight and The blue sky sunny and warm.
In winter it seems closer and bold. No matter how blue the sky, When it’s clear, it beyond cold.
My mountain, I know it well, From high sharp peak To the foothills swell.
This is where I find release. In its shadow I chose to stay. Here, I’ve found peace.
BROKEN APART
By Karly O’Loughlin
I am unfinished
OUTLOOK, OVERVIEW
By Sharon Ann Jaeger
Where souls cannot speak, not even look, they must meet in the shared breath that fills this arc of a world.
In this entry to Eden, how bittersweet to linger at the margins of a paradise that almost cannot be.
Each house-cube, angled, matte, is a painting, not a home; the roads, untenanted, unspool from field to field,
bearing their goal within themselves, knowing the end when they get there. So we should also go:
to have one’s will of the world will not do, yet I am not reconciled.
All I see is subsumed into such a blast of light,
Like the half raked leaves the evening of the first snowfall Like all the photos I meant to post on Instagram In a constant state of scattered guilt for all that remains Spreading myself thin amongst the days falling like rain If dying marks finality, Perhaps it is death I subconsciously crave Subconscious, like the way I push the curls out of my eyes Or how my fingers play on the surface of the bath water Oh life, you myriad of moments, broken apart I will dip my toes in your water and find myself Submerged and reaching for the quiet depths, Actively feeling for the bottom
a red mist in my eyes, that the world at my feet seems to swim far below like a fish in tears. My breath lifts away in the wind, I barely stir.
The birds are everywhere. Each calls and calls to its own rhythm, in an over-and-over tune. Who could tell
which answers which? If they are turning in for muster, all are present and accounted for. Their sounds in motion
span all space, opening it wider to the merciless light as the ever-starker shadows marking off
the day that slips away from us ration the moments one by one, as into another dimension the sun will slide forever, the bright birds fall silent and the stars blink into being to show the hidden face of the turning world. So I keep steady in my mind what peace I know, his still, clear gaze.
DYSTOPIA
By Charles Dean Walker
Don’t feel anything.
Believe the way I believe.
Insult the opposition’s intelligence.
Don’t indoctrinate my child, whilst I indoctrinate yours.
Fear what the scientists do.
Fear what the scientists say.
Ruin people’s faiths.
Whilst I claim supremacy of morality.
Claim it’s all fake news.
There’s an American power we could lose.
Blame races for their terrorists but, do as they oft’ times do.
Make up conspiracies, make connections when there is none.
Blame the Government for censorship.
Blame the opposite side’s politicians for it too.
But keep the gays out my literature.
Burn all the books.
Make up revisions to history.
Forget actual fact, we’ve got the alternative.
Praise our Prophet/God/President.
We will idolize him, and place a crown upon his head.
Who’s this Christ fellow?
Well, he’s no Trump.
MY ANGER WAS A RED RED BALLOON
By Ione
My anger was a red red balloon carried on a string high above heads bobbing just out of sight
My anger was a weapon a lead bullet locked and loaded one click and I was gone
My anger was a river white capped and fast pulling my feet from the ground
My anger was a secret
passed around the halls through sideways glances shared over my head
My anger was a virus lying in wait burning like a fever in my brain
My anger poured from my eyes like hot tar running down my face in the quiet of the night
My anger was a gift given to me by your impenetrable presence
But then, it was the first language you learned to speak your anger was survival.
