The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

Growing up Franco-American in a New England Yankee town... Day 28 You'll Be Found Out   I cannot see                   I do not know What is this place           the land of No  What have I done           could I have won What might have been    afraid to win  Under the radar              do not st...

This is a post-ahead for April 28 Italian Cooking in the Upper Midwest Mom's recipe, 1948, stewed tomatoes over pasta. Garlic was discovered in the 50s. Cayenne pepper burst upon the scene in 1963 along with basil. Sometime in the 80s unfamiliar cheeses beyond Kraft Velveeta followed by scrapings f...

April 26 AOL News Two featured stories: thousands of Emperor penguin chicks wiped out in the antarctic and some starlet I've never heard  of stuns on the red carpet  in a see-through dress.   This is short, but really evocative of our times--with people ignoring the catastrophic to oo and ah over t...

Day 27 The Culture Into Which I Was Born I see that barefoot girl covered with freckles, with white hair and blue eyes, not really fitting in, but trying to. She isn't white all over, nor brown all over, liked the kids down the street. (After she turns six, she can't play with them anymore.) She fee...

Deb, I believe your Overview Effect is your best offering so far. Indar, dying penguins and nameless starlets,  Short but telling. ===== I need an early night tonight and tomorrow may be rather busy, so I'm posting tomorrow's early.  But I am sticking to writing one a day. Gyppo ===== Napo 27 - 201...

Day 26 Mee-Maw Feeble tears fall from eyes red-rimmed, slide down roughened red cheeks, drip unchecked into soap-scummed water. Outside, steel-silver rain gushes from blue-black clouds, slashes white houses, waters red horses. She stacks bone-white plates onto silver racks, pops the yellow stopper, ...

Napo 25 - 2019 Organic Snow The May Blossom fell early this year. The trees were stiff with it, white billowing clouds  outlined against the sky, glowing in the moonlight of a still night, like a giant blancmange. There were two days warning when it lost its impossible sheen, and then the wind blew...

The Lake Isle of Innisfree BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace com...

Indar and AJ. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I do need to get that chapbook out into the world, whether it would be appreciated or not. Indar. I am a retired supervisory editor of a military journal, and I still do free-lance editing. I write prose as well, mostly book reviews now. Marcel and T...

Day 25 Capture Those Words Capture those words flying around the room with unclipped wings. Hold open the cage door while I use this net to gently stifle them. I don't want to stop them, I just want to corral them before they hurt someone. Here, I've caught them. As soon as I cage them, quickly clos...