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BLUES DAYS by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 1994 What kind of day do I like? The kind where the weather has the blues: the wet blues, slip-slop-sloppy-sloshy blues, the white cold flurry blues, grey-sky-overhead blues, where the colors have a chance to scream out and soar, and you get to sit around the nice, warm, well-lit-house, snuggled into your warm flannel shirt and your dry jeans and warm,…
THE PITCH by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 2023 The summer I was 15, I obsessed about the Red Sox. I’d been a Boston fan for several years, but ‘69 was different. I had to have surgery on my knee; I’d hurt it playing basketball in a Catholic high school A senior and I, a lowly sophomore, were the two best players on the team. She had a scholarship to UConn, the only school nearby that gave girls…
WORKING CLASS, EBB AND FLOW by Robin Shwedo ©Robin Shwedo, 2018 I For years, my ex and I lived for the weekends. Unemployed for months, living in the house next door to his parents, a house they'd inherited, he'd finally found work, bringing in a weekly paycheck – pittance, though it was – when combined with food stamps and no rent, it paid the bills, if just barely. Friday, after work, we'd…
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT REVOLVE AROUND YOU by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 1995 The Revolution will not revolve around you. It revolves around people without jobs who want to work who need to work who strive to work who’ve given up trying to work within a system that strives to keep them down while saying “no more safety net” while letting children go hungry while giving themselves humungous…
BLUES DAYS by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 1994 What kind of day do I like? The kind where the weather has the blues: the wet blues, slip-slop-sloppy-sloshy blues, the white cold flurry blues, grey-sky-overhead blues, where the colors have a chance to scream out and soar, and you get to sit around the nice, warm, well-lit-house, snuggled into your warm flannel shirt and your dry jeans and warm,…
REBEL by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 1995 “Sit down and shut up,” he orders with a snarl. I have been to hell and back, seen things - no, experienced them - that no living being, human or otherwise, should know exists. There are abuses which, bad enough when done by unknown, are a thousand times worse when done in the name of love. There are those who bully for what they want, who fight without…
TRAIL, EARLY EVENING by Robin Shwedo ©Robin Shwedo, 2014 Evening walks are the counter-point to those in the early morning. Mornings feel fresh; the day's heat hasn't made the air too oppressive, except in August. But evening walks are better for unwinding, decompressing from the day. I follow my usual path, heading south to the end of the street then head cross-country. Going through the park's…
THE MOVE OF A FRIEND by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 1987 Today, a friend of mine is moving out of state. We've both known for months about today, the date marked on two calendars. I've known her most of the four years she's been here. We met during a critical time in our lives: she was back in school, a mother of two, I, newly separated, in a new house, with double the kids. Fate had us go to…
LAUNDRYMAT by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 1994 Amazing how much life you can find in mundane places. The brutal death of a washer and dryer - stupid pieces of machinery - suddenly necessitates going out to do an almost intimate act. God forbid the shower dies! But, clean clothes being so much nicer than filth, and I'm out of the house with my beloved. We've traded one outing with another, been…
REJECTION by Robin Shwedo ©: Robin Shwedo, 1995 The day I dyed my hair blue, I was asked “why?” more than once. Always, I’d answer, “Felt like it.” Of course, it’s much more complex, but what it boils down to is this: Rejection. Being way different is hard enough, the biggest fear being that No One Will Like You. However, give someone something they can latch onto: Dye your hair blue, wear combat…