Happy Book 4th ed.

• Ralph the Mouse, may he RIP
• "happy as the grass was green"
• my manuscript
• Interrogating Aunts
• Sister Shelley and ward choir
• Dad on the high dive
• shoulder dozing
• stained glass windows
• hugging Lacey for the first time in a month
• scruff

A Good Weekend...

is rubbing Alec's newly stubbly chin while he scowls

is a long afternoon nap while it rains

is finishing midterms with flying colors

is playing with my peach colored bracelet

is talking more in twenty minutes to Mom than I previously had to anyone all week

is knowing she doesn't care if everything I say is somewhat inane

is winning both football games

is watching Gretchen laugh hysterically at small yellow "Minions"

is staying up late to finish Sam's book before he finds out it's missing

is anticipating artsy fartsy pumpkins, and Chriff and Whit's homemade donduts

is running home from church in the rain

is singing at the top of my lungs in the car, despite hiccups

is the studio

is stew, not soup

is wearing galoshes with pajama shorts

is clean laundry

is foiling Banshee's escape plans

is sorbet

is seeing my favorite face at the front door

I...

think Gene Kelly is the bees knees
made my own coloring book
drink hot chocolate the way the British do tea
will fall asleep if you play with my hair
am Cosmo's girlfriend
plan to be a crazy cat lady someday
miss home
paint my ceiling
pick at my scabs
wish he'd just ask me already
pray in pictures
dance in the kitchen
know that A-frames point to heaven
can't picture my own face
sleep soundly and sometimes on the floor
eat sour cream lemon pies whole
pick up buttons and pennies
hope I'll know what to say
chase geese
walk barefoot to the swish of lace edged petticoats
dream of kisses and water and doe-like leaping
remember things I've never seen
wander hill and dale
love the view from the ice cream churn
wear dainty shoes
take my time
clean up pretty good
make the best brownies
have never been to Disneyland
devour wedding magazines
am attached to my dingy green couch
run down mountains
belong in skirts
read everything
cry only on special occasions
catch snatches
play pretend and imagine myself to sleep
taunt the people I like best
forget, conveniently
want a pet burro name Potpie
am a devil's advocate
sigh when I laugh
sing when I have hiccups
search, ponder, and pray
hero worship Stargirl
sit still
swim in green black fish kiss waters
perch in apple trees
can peaches and eat applesauce warm-with cinnamon
name everything
flee unwanted attention
hear happiness in open windows
believe in the spirit of things
consume sour patch watermelon gummies
will eventually own ten pink piggy banks named Portia, Peony, Poppy, Page,
Padma, Psyche, Penny, Petunia, Phoebe, and Pearl
travel well
don't like nuts
breathe
feel unprepared, no matter how prepared I am
fall in love
feed people and birds and the occasional potgut (they like potato chips)
wear lipstick and my grandmother's ring
help lost children
have a plan
think milk and cookie picnics = love
toss cans and try not to drop them on my feet
will not dignify that with a response
would fly on blackbird wings
aruge a point longer than is seemly
promptly peel my nailpolish off
told him they were the Lord's cheeps
envy the sentinel trees house
see more than I write

Published!!

Yes, it's true. I'm being published. Though only in a school literary journal, BYU's is award winning and of eight poets they pick every year, I was one of them! So my surprise and a little chagrin they pick the one poem in the few I submitted that I was least confident in. Let's say I have a whole lot more now! And this is it...

Lake Houses

Five pairs of bored child feet loll on the backs of carseats
And seven voices sing:
"Buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta, stolen from Africa,
Brought to America."
Eyes half closed, catching snatches of red and orange and orange tree green
Flashing through my empty head.
With a gasp and a chorus of swiveling necks
The trees give way to houses,
Glorious, castle-in-the-air houses.
Houses dreamed of by children:
Tree houses;
Stilt houses;
Pink houses;
Houses that wish they were bungalows;
Houses round;
Houses with swings and bridges;
And every one hangs over the water.
Five child faces press against the glass
As Paradies-by-the-Lake floats by.
The last thing we see is a ready and redly gleaming skiff
Anchored at a spindling dock
And one small boy with a stick and hat,
Waving.

Happy Book ed. 3

1. magnolias
2. someday eating my weight in oreos
3. Caden Zesiger
4. fats cats yawning
5. making and then quickly eating cream puffs
6. wedding magazines
7. the house that built me
8. A-frames that point to heaven
9. stairs that don't go anywhere
10. avoiding aunt interrogation for one more week

Picture of the day...

One week until Sky Haven, snow, the Emerald log, and a lodgepole pine A-frame that points to heaven. Almost home.

Happy Book Second Edition

1. making applesauce and eating it hot with cinnamon
2. doing puzzles with Grandpa, my twenty pieces to his two
3. children's menus that require crayons
4. dimples
5. using a shoe to hammer a nail
6. flat tires
7. singing the Hallelujah chorus
8. gumball banks
9. porch sitting
10. mistletoe hopes