Month: October 2014

Steel

I was forged by desire, hot, molten, flaming that lovers stoked at their own risk. They melted into me. I was hammered by love, reduced by its aftermath. My leaden feet lifted by force of will, I learned to dance with monkeys and their crosses and that weight on my back. What else could we … Continue reading “Steel”

dancing buddha

I was forged by desire,
hot, molten, flaming
that lovers stoked
at their own risk.

They melted into me.
I was hammered
by love, reduced
by its aftermath.

My leaden feet lifted
by force of will,
I learned to dance
with monkeys
and their crosses
and that weight
on my back.

What else could we do?

When nothing ever happened
on time, when doors slammed
with us behind them,
when we witnessed
everything
but saw nothing,
when we prayed for help,
and were left to ourselves?

Weren’t we all steeled
by love, etched on singular
faces, long after the bodies
have gone to dust?

What wouldn’t we try
to be so warm
again, to strike
over and over,
casting our mistakes
without regret?

key words: Janice Lynch Schuster, poetry

What Fire Was Like

    What we needed, we did not want. What we wanted, we did not need. Whatever safety I sought in you Did not exist there. We were in a cold room, two sticks for hearts. When they rubbed together, some kind of furious dance, a spark, ignited the bed, set the house on fire. … Continue reading “What Fire Was Like”

 

 

leaves on fire

What we needed, we did not want.
What we wanted, we did not need.
Whatever safety I sought in you
Did not exist there.

We were in a cold room, two sticks
for hearts. When they rubbed
together, some kind of furious dance,
a spark, ignited the bed,
set the house on fire.

There is no joy in melting
into the other. No self in the end,
no sense of what made
us whole—or what we made.

The skeleton frame of the house
stood still, smoldering and terrible,
while we watched, our hands seared
by nothing we could touch.

key words: Janice Lynch Schuster, poetry, divorce

Hot Flash News Flash: Hormone Therapy for Menopause

After having endured hot flashes several times an hour day in and day out, I decided to find help. In the process, I learned a great deal, and shared what I learned in an article out in today’s Washington Post.     key words: Washington Post, Janice Lynch Schuster, menopause, hormone treatment

After having endured hot flashes several times an hour day in and day out, I decided to find help. In the process, I learned a great deal, and shared what I learned in an article out in today’s Washington Post.

 Menopause

 

key words: Washington Post, Janice Lynch Schuster, menopause, hormone treatment

When My Dad Sneaked Into the White House, Washington Post, 2014

My father is a sports fanatic. That fanaticism led to his excellent adventure–a visit to the White House in 1978, when the Washington Bullets won the national championship. A fun story to read, given the current hard times of security breaches. Dad at the White House, 1978

My father is a sports fanatic. That fanaticism led to his excellent adventure–a visit to the White House in 1978, when the Washington Bullets won the national championship. A fun story to read, given the current hard times of security breaches.

Dad at the White House, 1978

Dad at Nats

Race, memory, and the present: Washingtonian, October 2014

I grew up in a racially polarized time and place. I thought my Dad was Atticus Finch and Clarence Darrow. His first murder trial involved defending a black man accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a white police officer. This is my memory–and what it means in today’s racially polarized America.   … Continue reading “Race, memory, and the present: Washingtonian, October 2014”

I grew up in a racially polarized time and place. I thought my Dad was Atticus Finch and Clarence Darrow. His first murder trial involved defending a black man accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a white police officer. This is my memory–and what it means in today’s racially polarized America.

 

Shattered House, Washingtonian, Oct 2014

 

Key words: race, Ferguson, murder, biracial