#wordtraps

[wordtraps]

Stressed Is Just Desserts Spelled Backwards

People fall into habits when they are under stress. I’ve talked to nail biters, foot tappers, drink mixers, and sleep skippers. who all swear by their methods.

When I am stressed I bake. That’s why during finals season of my senior year, I pumped out four dozen sugar cookies- each iced by hand- and perfected my graham cracker pie crust. I made three tins of fudge after my computer crashed. I taught myself cake decorating while waiting for my doctor to call. Sometimes when my head starts spinning, it is nice to do something that I am good at. It is nice to do something easy.

It is nice to eat cake.

[wordtraps]

Survival Techniques of Frogs

Why do you where that red lipstick? Who are you trying to impress? Girls are pretty when they look natural and shallow girls wear makeup. Excuse me I did not know that the colour of my lips could offend you. The truth is I wear red lipstick because I like the stains it leaves on coffee mugs. I like the ritual of staring at the mirror and tracing over my own features. I like pretending to be a pinup girl or a well paid (if you know what I mean) secretary, a flapper girl from the 20s, a black and white Hollywood film star. They say that the brighter the skin of a frog, the more poisonous they are. That's why the poisonous dart frog comes in technicolor shades of blue yellow and orange. I wear red lipstick because it makes me feel like I could kill a man

[wordtraps]

Through My Soul

I want to live my life in bare feet. I want to walk down sidewalks and feel all the cracks. I want to dance on wet grass until my feet are stained green. I will walk around my home exploring the aging fibers of my carpet and the uneven hardwood floors. When I go outside I will feel the pavement burn my toes and harden my heels. I will puddle jump grape stomp tightrope walk through my life. I want to walk through cold mud, sponges of moss, shopping malls covered in linoleum broken glass. I want to explore the world through my sole.

[wordtraps]

The tree lay on its side, a rounded bridge over moss covered rocks. Its skin fostering flowering orange blooms in the deep ridges where tiny life forms scuttled and dwelled.

Roots snaking up towards the sky. A giant maze that she traced with her fingertips. No end and no beginning, only twist after turn and connected wooden veins.

Earth mixed with bark perfumed the air. The smell of decay synonymous with the smell of growth. Bundles of mushrooms cluster beneath it. Blurring the lines separating the corpse from the ground.

The forest is reclaiming its fallen soldier.

[wordtraps]

Sometimes when I can't sleep

I paint instead

not with water colours like I usually do,

they are too fragile

they get lost in the night.

Instead, I pull out the acrylics

I shake them up and squeeze

them directly onto canvas.

making tiny hills in red and blue.

I do not use paintbrushes

I use my hands. They slide 

in the dark until the paint becomes too dry

I do not know what I have created

until I turn on the light in the morning