The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

Headstones acre land  in useless chronicles, individual names and dates inform nothing. Tall stone memorials stretch and strain above graves already resigned to hold fast.  Gravity files their bones in dark, moist nurtures  and all the while  what's left of what they were settles and shifts. A totem...

A nice slice of island life...sounds like Heaven to my ears 

S3 & 4 are excellent.  I'm confused by the bees though. S1 appears to be a trap to kill the wasps...but (in the last S) the N goes to the trouble of catching three to release? Even though 'the music stopped' I assume they were still alive? I read The Wasp Factory a long time ago, and also have very ...

I note the 'sometimes' and 'but' repeat...but...don't like the second 'but' in S4.
A small nit in a poem that resonates for me. Nice read.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you too...and to all our fellow members 

A terribly tragic personal story told with great subtlety, and without maudlin ramblings. Dealing with death is such a private experience...and impossible to quantify. The son of a friend of my friend died recently from cancer. He was in his 20's and married. A week or so after he was buried she com...

It's a valid POV.
Too easy now for anyone to protest...and disturb easy (and the wrong) targets.
Don't go for rhyming...but enjoyed it.

Indeed...where did the warmth go?
Nice read aj.

Sorry to hear that this is real Linda. It's very well written, and with great restraint. His story silently screams, barely hidden behind your careful words. I get the feeling the almost matter of fact way it's written reflects a resignation...your  family did all they could for him, and all that's ...

Thanks Colm, Gyppo... Gyp, yes it's a genuine memory. I wrote this in the reliving, so it's voiced broad and over-sweet as a 15 year old girl might. I neither did it justice nor dissected, just let it come as it may. I could examine it as 50-something Sharon and really condense/refine it, sharpen i...

WOW, just wonderful, it captures everything.
I'm way, way past my bedtime...but I'll be back.