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Happy to have a poem today in Persephone’s Daughters. This issue of the journal is on women and abuse. Here’s a link:

http://persephonesdaughters.tk/index.php/issue-five-fall-2018/

My poem “The Radium Girls” is today’s featured poem on Rise Up Review. If you’ve not heard of The Radium Girls, they were a group of women who worked painting faces on high end watches. They were lied to about the silvery paint they were using (it was radioactive) and they were also encouraged to dip their paintbrushes on their lips and tongue to preserve the points of the paintbrushes and save money on supplies. Let that sink in a minute: the lives of the women were less important than the shelf life of paintbrushes.

I have a nonfiction piece in the feminist anthology Feckless Cunt. Don’t let the naughty name scare you, there’s some really good writing worth checking out. Here’s a link to get yourself a copy. https://amzn.to/2x18kXz

I also have some photography in the autumn issue of The Watershed Journal.

Yay!

I am grateful to have a community of artist and writer friends who seek to support and promote the work of others as well as their own. I wonder sometimes if that is unique to Pittsburgh as I’ve not encountered that in other cities where I’ve lived. Greg Clary, a talented photographer and writer, let me know about The Watershed Journal and encouraged me to send them some of my photos. They accepted one for publication and I’m looking forward to seeing it in print. Looking forward to being “page mates” with my buddy Greg.

As I’m not sure whether or not it’s alright to post the photo that was accepted, here is one they aren’t using from the same set. This is the Ravens Rock overlook from Coopers Rock State Forest.

And thanks, Greg. ♥️

I wrote this poem in response to my personal struggle and acceptance around female baldness. A few years ago I had taken to wearing a wig, but I didn’t like the way it felt, my scalp was always itchy, and my head felt like an oven. So I decided to stop wearing the wig and letting my hair be what it was: thin. Thanks to a good stylist and some good hair product, it’s not quite as noticeable. I get upset that it is socially acceptable to criticize a woman in regards to her grooming choices. I may choose to do something different in the future but for right now I’m keeping my hair, what little there is of it

just the way it is. So here’s me today, no make-up, thin hair, 45 years old. I’m ok with real.

Thank you to PPP Ezine for publishing this poem today.

https://poetrypoeticspleasureezine.wordpress.com/