It is smooth, yet intangible; black, yet invisible; spherical, yet borderless.

Longing to caress and touch the smooth and somehow enticing surface, it hypnotizes and  allures.

Crystalline yet liquid, it swirls in color, but when fingers reach out trembling, vaporous it becomes until…

Disappearing utterly, with some melodious trailing trill.

Calling to your longing, it is intimately yours... yet everyone’s... yet no one's.

Ubiquitous yet secretive, you’ve known it forever yet it reminds you vastness too vast to know.

I was excited when I got my Shakalaka 3000, I mean the commercials and even the website said 'Dance like crazy or dance like a professional', but of course, I was a little skeptical about it. Then I tried it, and let me tell you, it is no lie, I have been dancing so much the last couple days, my legs are big now. I can now do the Printer Slide, the Derek Jitter, and let's not forget the most popular, the heat wave, I truly recommend buying this amazing piece of technology, got to go, the dance floor is calling.

(Part of The Dragon book series, all made up....Enjoy reading).

In a world of magic, royalty, fantasy and powerful beings. The greatest and wisest of all are the dragons. For a long time the Eryeandorians have looked to the dragon for help. Dragons have given assistance to the kingdom. They have helped them win battles against mighty enemies. These winged creatures don't bother themselves with earthly trouble/fights. But they will always be ready to help anyone who needs it.

'The Dragon of Eryeandor' tells a story about the last surviving dragon in the kingdom. This dragon feels like the people of the kingdom have forgotten all the aid they received from the past dragons. The people of the kingdom forgot how kind the dragons had been from the beginning. Soon, they were all being hunted down. Their skin was used as war armor. Their teeth were used as sharp weapons. Only one dragon was left in the land.

As the last living dragon in the entire kingdom, the Eryeandorian Dragon decides to seek vengeance. The dragon roars near it's cave, and kills any person that dares to capture it for armor use.

Now in fear for their own lives, the people of Eryeandor ask the Kingdom's Dragon charmer to cast a spell on the dragon. One that would at least either put it to rest, or in a frozen death state. They didn't want to lose their only/last Dragon.

The Dragon charmer once at the dragon's cave speaks with the dragon. And asks it how far it wants to go with bringing death to humankind. The Dragon tells the charmer that it only wants to be free. It also misses it's family.

The Dragon charmer grants the Dragon it's wish. With a wave of his hand, a portal is opened. The Dragon sees a gateway to another world. A place full of dragons; a land without human-beings.

After a quick good-bye. The dragon walks to the dragon world, and the portal closes.

There's a soft cry heard from the mouth of the cave. With a snap of his fingers, the Dragon charmer transports himself closer into the cave.

In the corner of the cave, there's a dragon nest. Within the nest- the Dragon charmer finds a group of hatchlings. They move their tiny wings. One hatchling sneezes- and a tiny fire-ball comes out of it's mouth.

The Dragon charmer snaps his fingers and displaces the baby dragons. He sends them all to a safer location. His own home, that is located far away from the rest of the kingdom.

5-6 years ago, I used to live in a shitty apartment between unsteady relationships and working. On the first floor, I had a tiny garden in the back surrounded by walls and other buildings. And a boyfriend who knew about gardening a little, he helped me make a little garden. Just flowers and some fruit trees. He kept saying there wasn't enough space for a tree but I wanted anyway. I wasn't even going to be there in a year or two. Until then, I wanted to grow something. When we broke up, I thanked him for the garden. He told me to take care of it.

I don't smoke. I never smoked in my life. But I loved going out to that garden every night. Being there made me feel alone but surrounded with people, just what I needed. I could hear early sleepers snoring, TV noises, teenagers yelling their parents, people having sex. In the weekends, I'd mostly hear the lady living upstairs reading words, repeating, trying to spell them right.

One Saturday morning, she threw the book to my garden while I was listening to music. She pointed a line in the book she held. I got up and took the book, a first grade reading exercise book. She was reading it to me, asking me if she was pronouncing the words correctly. I corrected some of the words. She kept reading, I kept reading back and correcting. She thanked me and said she needed to cook, she left the book with me.

Next weekend, I was reading in the garden when she asked me if we could read again. I said yes, she kept reading, I kept reading back. Then she asked me "Where is the boy?" Their balcony could see nothing but my garden, I wasn't surprised that she noticed there was a guy and now he was gone. I told her that he needed to go. She asked me my age and why I was alone. I said 27 but couldn't answer the other question. She smoked, she smoked all the time. She told me she never learned reading. Her family didn't bother sending her to school, she got married when she was 15, travelled to a big city she didn't know with a grumpy old husband. Already 2 kids when she was just 18. I had nothing to say when she asked me why I was alone. She never knew how being alone felt like. I'm sure she would've liked it. She gave me a piece of cake she baked.

Next weekend, we read more. She was getting much better. She asked me if the boy was coming back. Women like her, women like my mom, people in my culture... They're always worried about lonely women. They never want women to be alone. They never say it to you directly but they'll keep asking. They'll never ask if you're happy but they'll ask if you have a man, if you'll have a man. Or if you had a man. You can't be angry at them for worrying about you, for hiding "you're old, you should have a man before it's too late or none will have you" in their questions. I could almost hear that but I smiled, said he wasn't coming back and I was ok. I couldn't ask her if she was happy. This culture teaches you to smile and nod even if they rub salt in your wounds. You learn to love the ones who judge you. You become the master of smiling, nodding to their worried questions mixed with judgement and doing what you want to do. In the end, she didn't know any better.

Most weekends, we read together. In a few months, she started reading short stories. I gifted her a La Fontaine book, wrapped and put it in her basket when she gave me stuffed grape leaves. She would ask the same question in different ways. This time it was loneliness. She always said that they were upstairs if I needed anything. To her, I wasn't whole. I had missing parts and she was offering help for me to be whole. I said thank you, once again like a good single woman. She asked "Aren't you scared of being alone?"

I said "it's quiet."

The White House is amok

Putin's boy straddles the throne

Like a toddler the potty

Demi-patriots turn half-blind eyes

The Great American Constitution

Asphyxiates in the very foul air 

Of treasonous villainy 

That the Fathers could only

Have nightmares of

Hypocrisy blended with faith

Political evangelicalism masquerades

As religious verve

Many are sold on a yuuge lie

Yet, not I 

What drives us, America? 

Bigotry disguised as conservatism

Mammonic greed presenting

As republican trickle-down-ism

Or plain old fear of the other? 

-"But Hillary's emails!", 

cries every Trumpster, 

suffering from a special bout 

of cognitive dissonance and projection, 

mired in perpetual intellectual stagnation.

Stoic, 

I have hidden my pain in hope

MAGA.

Right. ..

Pity, oh pity! I am a point in life now where I am doing something that I hadn´t exactly planned to do.

I had started my degree just like any odd person in my class, knowing that at the end of  five years, I would be the profession that the degree promised to make out of me. There was just a tiny little hitch. The degree also required something out of me. Something that hadn´t appeared on the text describing the course and its requirement. I had qualified gradewise and was a fairly decent student. But what it required of me was some initial talent, and a certain character to pass for the degree: I had to be strong and Confident, even while doing things that I had never ever done Before. Anyways, as it is, I will be graduating with the theoretical degree instead. Which is not bad, not bad at all! In fact, it is something that better suits my ability and my characteristics.

 But see, here´s the Little secret: sometimes, just sometimes, when I see my old classmates becoming something that I had originally set out to be, I feel sad, I feel angry, I feel frustrated and I feel sorry. Sorry for myself.

 And see the situation sucks, and I just wanna be sad, and mad at the whole craziness of it.

 But at the same time, if there is anything in the World that sucks even more, that annoys me even more, is when people pity me, when they feel sad for me!

 Gah! That´s like the worst feeling in the World.

Cause it´s like when people pity you, they Place you on a level much much lower than their´s. If someone is feeling sorry for me, it´s cause they Think they have it much better.

 I guess the pity of others really gets to me, since it makes me realize that if others Think that my situation is bad, then *gosh* it must be really really bad!

 So dear pity, dear pity, what might my solution to you be?

I guess it is to simply let you be.

To simply just focus on what is going well for me, what is working for me, stuff that I am proud of, stuff that I am enjoying; and let others also simply be.