Successes

I felt bad for her joy for there was no chance it could last.

“You can’t even be happy for my successes?” She hurled her statement question my way.

“I just know the going up isn’t worth the coming down for what its worth.”

I was embarrassed that I was so easy to read. I knew that I should work on that.

Funny how one instinctively knows when the moment of change is at hand.

Dennis Mantin

Someone Special

The Wait is almost over. A strange feeling fills the air.

She walks in pain and out the door. With a strong dramatic flair.

I know I’m going to miss her . No specifics come to my mind.

I searched for someone special. Oh and special I did find.

Be careful what you wish for, I heard the old ones say.

Those words are ringing in my ears. Tears of joy are on the way.

Dennis Mantin

BROUHAHA

The drinks were in abundance.

The ice was cold and cubed.

The songs and myths were in a loop.

The tongues were loosely lubed.

Last call came at closing.

There was screaming in their throats.

With no one left to take them home.

And they were really feeling their oats.

The sun came out at midday.

The rays were bright and warm.

There were rumblings of a brouhaha.

Along with rumors of a storm.

Dennis Mantin

Mother’s Day

I don’t think Mother’s get enough credit… There is great sacrifice in motherhood. Physical, emotional, financial… all of this and more.

The dependence that children have on their mothers is paramount.

My mother was Margaret MacIver and her mother was Mary who died when my mother was 13.

Margaret died when I was 11. I don’t know if I ever got over her passing.

My daughters mother lost the ability to cope with parenting when my daughter was 8 and although I have never given birth, I am a father and a mother to my girl; according to her.

I take the job and privilege of parenting as the highest priority in my life. I have learned that not everyone can be a parent in spite of the fact that they can give birth. There are many reasons for this and some of them are even valid…

Dennis Mantin

Lacking

I knew what I was lacking.

A distance off… like when I dreamed?

There was this sound, a kind of hacking.

A rattled cough, or so it seemed.

I was dreaming I was sleeping.

A sign I took, I might be tired.

All this driving and the working.

Alas, not a fear I might get fired.

Dennis Mantin

“One Of Those”

My memory has been triggered by the events of the leaked Supreme Court document and the outrage of the left.

When I was 28 in 1986 I overheard a conversation between a man of about 30 and a young woman in her 20’s.

They were discussing a teenager being charged for child endangerment for giving birth to a baby in the toilet of a greyhound bus and leaving the infant there abandoned.

The young woman was expressing her outrage of “How dare they!” When I interjected this question to her.

“How old do you feel a child has to be before the child has a right to live? You obviously don’t believe that breathing and having life gives them any rights. Would it be OK to stop killing them when they are 1?2? 5? 10?”

She looked at me with disdain and dragging her eyes from me and back to her companion said,

“He’s one of those.”

Dennis Mantin

Body Autonomy

Are the people who criticized those who refused vaccinations; the same people who are now talking about that everybody should have the right to choose what happens to their bodies when it comes to abortion?

The timing of these 2 events seems odd or curious to me. Is this why the right are bringing this up now?

Maybe not… I don’t know. It just seems lately that it sounds like the same people are the ones that are protesting every issue.

I’m tired and this came to mind.

Dennis Mantin