My Peace

My peace is

The blue seen between the leaves of a tall tree

When looking up from the ground

It is a kind glance 

An unrolled eye

My peace is

The silence between sobs

The end of an exhale

Just before the next breath in

It is the beauty in one yellow rose

In the garden of the house across the street

My peace is

A pause between seconds

Between tic and tock

And the charged space between me

And everything else

The Sun

The Sun steps out

From behind the ornate, gray and white clouds

With fanfare and trumpet song

The bright, golden rays hit me

Like the warm water spray

Of my five am shower

I close my eyes

And gratefully soak it in

Clean, calming sunshine

I take a deep, satisfied breath

But on the exhale

My warped, disloyal brain

Fixes on my lack of sunscreen

And the ominous possibilities

UGLY VISION

I only wear my glasses to read and to drive. Sometimes, even then, I don’t bother with them. I can go days without putting them on. That’s why I’m not exactly sure when my glasses changed.
All I know is that this morning, after breakfast, I decided to do some research on the computer. I sat down at my desk and in one fluid motion took my gasses out of their case and brought my laptop back from slumber. Before the handles were resting on my ears, I knew something was wrong.
At first, I could still see my office, and everything was in its usual place, but all of it was bathed in a dingy bruise colored light.
I could make out other things in the room with me, and that vision grew more clear with time. It was like watching a movie, a horrible moving picture that was filmed using a deep purple lense.

I watched in stricken silence as alien, yet almost human creatures perpetrated acts of violence onto one another using sharp metal tools of unusual design.
I instinctively moved to take the glasses off. I brought both shaking hands up to my face, but when my fingers connected with plastic, I understood that things were even worse than I had imagined. My heart rate trippled and the beating organ seemed to drop into my stomach. I couldn’t get the glasses off. They were stuck to my face.
I tried but was unable to get out of my chair. I was hypnotized by the visions I was being forced to view. It was all cruelty, violence and shocking acts of deep purple gore.
I closed my eyes…and the visions were gone. There was only blessed blackness, and with my eyes closed, I was able to stand up. I stood in my own personal darkness with my eyelids squeezed shut and pulled the glasses from my face.
I opened my eyes, and let the glasses fall hard onto the keyboard of my laptop.
Since then I have been blinking and rubbing at my eyes, but nothing works anymore. Eyes opened or eyes closed, it doesn’t matter. When I reach out with my hands, I can feel my room, the chair the desk, the walls, everything, but all I can see is violence, death, rage and gore bathed in bruised purple light.

<strong>What if Your Cat is Like My Cat?
</strong> What if you wake up about two hours earlier than usual, and your cat is sitting on your chest staring down at you?  There is just enough light coming in from the slightly raised venetian blind that hangs over your bedroom window to allow you to see her clearly.  She doesn’t look like her usually loving and over affectionate self.  She looks like she is considering chewing your face off to fill her growling tummy.
 What if you whisper her name “Morgain” and she hisses your name back at you just as clearly?  Then she jumps off the bed and runs into the kitchen to stand in front of the cupboard where her canned food is kept. 
 What if instead of running passed the kitchen and out into the early morning darkness, curiosity overwhelms you, and you follow her?  She has her back to you, and you can see that her silky gray fur is bushed out the way it is when she is mounting an attack on the cat who lives downstairs and occasionally crosses her path on the front porch. 
 What if your normally mild-mannered kitty slowly turns her head around and looks up at you?  What if she says, “If you feed me right now, this will all end well,” so you walk carefully around her and get the can of Fancy Feast Ocean White-Fish? You manage to master your nerves and get the food into the bowl without making a mess.  What if Morgain snarfs down all the food without so much as blinking in your direction?
 What if when she finishes her food she smiles at you, literally smiles at you and then runs away to one of her hiding places? 
 What if you go back to your bedroom and sit on the bed in stunned silence for at least five minutes before you hear the familiar meow and yowl that you are used to hearing first thing in the morning, and then everything is the same as it was the day before?
 Will you tell your boyfriend?
 Will you call your mom?
 How hard will you try to get your cat to speak to you again?

Of Myth and Misery
By Frankie Valinda Ghee

I’ll tell you what I can
First, you should know
That none of this is planned
There was an alignment of the stars
Or a butterfly flapped its wings

Who knows?
But cosmically
There was not a single one of us
Who saw this coming

A person wakes up one morning
And swings her legs out of bed
Only to find herself sinking
Flailing
Beating at the liquid air

There is nothing she wouldn’t do
Nothing she would refuse
The one who offers up solid ground

The person who can end the panic
Is in that moment
The one true god of myth
And misery
She will worship him
Because she needs to believe

You can now find me at FrankieGhee.com

I’ve been experiencing Spokane in a whole new way since I started performing on the sidewalks of the Lilac City with my tip jar (actually a very old coffee pot) at the ready.

I have found the citizens of our fair city to be wonderfully kind and generous.  This is something that I’ve always wanted to do but was afraid to try when I was working full time.  Now, that I am free, I have been having a blast and finding that I really love this town.

I you want to read more about my experiences, check out “Projects and Performances” under the “Music” tab.

Maybe I’ll see you out there sometime.  Let me know.

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