Essays Fiction and Poetry by Andrea LeDew
For Random Learning Comes
Essays Fiction and Poetry by Andrea LeDew
These are poems more than a year old
No longer young, no longer small, Eighteen-year-olds can do it all! Can fight in wars, can sneak a drink, Can tell us how and why they think, Can date online, can post a rant: They can! Except for when they can’t. No longer bound by dull commands, They sail to fight in foreign lands, …
While the flautest flaunts his fluting, The Elitist flouts all fleeting Equal treatment, equal eating, Equal talking, equal muting; And he flaunts his wares and wherefores, Climbing stairs and social ladders, Putting airs on, trying to flatter, And forgets what he is there for; While he’s spurning brave ambition, While he’s turning all …
I first posted this poem in 2018, after watching a dramatic series about real bacteriologists in Germany, who fought to vanquish cholera through the scientific method, in 1888, and won the Nobel prize for it. There are many parallels to today’s situation and the race to find a vaccine for coronavirus, from the fierceness …
Heavenly residents, Beings of light, Poised in the air, Ethereal, Gazing down At our oozing flesh, Feeling naught But pity. Copyright 2018 Andrea LeDew
I wrote this poem a few years ago when my son with autism was attending art therapy classes at a place called Indigo Art Therapy. The Indigo was taken from the concept of Indigo children, who were a class of children who didn’t necessarily do that well in school but were brilliant and creative …
Tiny Little pillows, Tiny little knives, Think how you’ve impacted Tiny little lives. How I miss your smiling, Yes, and your embrace, Tiny little woman, Tiny little face. Copyright 2018 Andrea LeDew
You’d think I would be thin by now, You’d think I would have shrunk, And yet the things you’d think you’d think You’d be wrong to have thunk. Copyright 2018 Andrea LeDew
First published in April 2018, this poem was inspired by a book review in the New York Times discussing former FBI director, James Comey’s, recent book about his experiences in government. The poem is voiced, with great artistic license, from what I imagine to be Comey’s point of view, as he addresses his …
A haggard, ragged cuticle, A hair tuft, out of place, A precious moment, wasted: In your world they don’t exist. In your virtual perfection, With your pretty, perfect face, Everybody keeps on smiling. No bad smells or aftertastes. Only one small thing is missing, Only one thing that you lack: It’s my …
My cup, it runneth over: My life is full, A cereal bowl I carry, ‘crost the carpet. My cup, it runneth over: I add and take And pile, and make A thousand mounds of owning. My cup, it runneth over: The corners creep, The order seeps, Until I’m suffocated. My cup, it …
A brown paper envelope, Inscribed by you, addressed to me, With quaint, old-fashioned stamper-y: It lies upon the butcher block, Its letters screaming at me. Inscrutable, decipherable To but a few, your idio- Syncratic script Crawls ‘cross the bundle: Fraktur, shadow-sculpting. And yet, it trails both here and there, And deviates, not following …
Mother, I miss you, For I can no longer Spill over the fruits Of my harvest To your willing ears, To your captive smile, To your thousand Acclamations. Mother, I miss you: My distaff, divine rod, My compass, pointing True North, Guiding me through peril, Traversing the morass Of fear, quenching me, …
I originally posted this poem shortly after my mother’s death in 2018. Now, in light of last night’s debate, and the claims that we are “turning a corner,” even as we peak, at the highest level of daily COVID-19 cases ever, it seems there are those out there who need reminding, of what it …
The year is almost over. The year is almost done. And I think of all I’ve failed at And I think of what I’ve won. And if nothing is for certain, And if nothing has been gained, But I walk a little lighter And I feel a lesser pain; And I visit less …
As I approach my golden year, My jewel in the crown, perhaps: This emotions-partly-frozen year, This artificial, jointed year, This sedentary comforts year Shall fade into the past; And I And I And I And I Shall rule myself At last. Copyright 2018 Andrea LeDew
I wrote this poem in 2017 as a belated addition to the many voices of the “Me Too” movement. Now, we mourn the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court Justice. She did much to advance the cause of women’s rights and disability rights (when will we just call them human rights?) It …
{I have included this poem in the series Sixty Days, because it deals with the theme of respecting Science, an attitude that has taken our country to the moon and beyond. It also points out how fragile the scientific mindset is. While this seventeenth-century scholar was ahead of his time in scientific thinking, he …
Once, a plant in my garden Had your name on it. An ordinary plant, Philodendron or some such. My children grew alongside And tended it. My first even learned its name, Its real name, Its Latin name. It gradually was crowded out, By roses with spike-thorns, and gingers, By lilies, rain- and toad-, By …
Slumming it With you, my friend, Keeping me laughing, Extreme in all things; Swinging purses, Rocking our blue jeans, Dollar pitchers, Alley door waiting. Across the parking lot— Slightly slick— We prance with youth, Toward the smoky dive, When the wind whips by, Snagging our satchels. Mine drifts on the …
{I’m including this ditty as part of my series Sixty Days , leading up to the 2020 presidential election, because it reminds us of some rather grim times, and the way the administration has responded to dire emergencies. This was first published in the summer of 2017, a very busy season for natural disasters. …
This time last year, My son slept on the couch; My girl was inconsolable; My husband, just as much. This time last year, I hobbled on a cane; I struggled with the staircase; My kids drove me insane. This time last year, I got no sleep at all; My son was throwing I-Pads, …
This is my submission, reblogged from Brave and Reckless‘ “Moon Ate the Dark” writing prompt. You will find lots of interesting poetry on this blog. I am really excited and pleased by the amount of submissions I received for the Moon Ate the Dark Writing Prompt Challenge. I intend to post all of the submissions …
