A GUEST POEM BY Byron Hamel They force you into theseLittle rowsIndustrial linoleumWorn down to bedrockWhere you waitUntil they are as urgent as you areAbout the death and mayhemPlease wait calmlyWhile the world caves inAnd you stay at the bottomIf you liveThey caught me cryingThis time about Hiroshima and NagasakiI’d been in the middle of…
It’s strange to me Looking back now At the way I was I felt confident Shimmery Or like A disco ball Breathing colors On every surface I felt magical Like a unicorn With pretty clothes And glittery makeup Totally deluded By my own Optical illusions
I’ve had a few hard weeks. Sleep has been hard. My knee is kinda a wreck. I see hurting people everywhere and I hate that. I want the world to be healthier and happier. But sigh… it’s a naive hope. It wasn’t too long ago though that I couldn’t see past my own pains. My…
Life won’t matter once it’s gone so it HAS to matter now. I remember the exact moment it felt like everything in my life changed. It was like a strange shift. A falling through floors. As if destiny was reaching out urging me to take its hand. To be honest, that night was blurry as…
I realized recently much of my anxiety was attached to a feeling that I needed to be perfect. Act perfectly in all things. I know logically there is no such thing. I mean I KNOW that. But I don’t think my heart ever got that message. I must execute plans perfectly. I must do exactly…
Zumba class used to be my happy place. Several times a week I would walk into this class and I’d forget about all the hard things in my life. Fun music, people sweating and laughing. We literally looked like we had taken a group shower when we were done. It felt so good. The instructor…
Racism is just another reason to be a bully… and it needs to stop. A true story written by Byron Hamel THE ROOK by Byron Hamel Did I ever tell you about the time I protected two black children from a Neo-Nazi skinhead who was crazy angry and getting violent because their mother was white?…
I first met Micheal Jason Allen when my daughter and I signed up to be extras on a movie set. My best friend Yousef Kazemi wrote and was directing a movie called The Stand-in. Follow its progress here. He was a well-dressed man (because we were in the wedding party) with a bowtie and a…
Please help me welcome Stephanie Musarra to #BeReal as she shares with us her experience with homelessness. It is easy to make assumptions about someone who is homeless because let’s face it… many of us have never been there. We tend to believe this is a problem we will never be faced with. But I…
Let’s be real for a moment. Life and death kind of real. A young woman is afraid nobody will come looking for her if she goes missing. What is the reality surrounding her concern and what can we do to fix it? A few years ago I ran across a letter written by Brianna Jonnie…
HASTYWORDS 