Category: flash

A Letter to the World

On By Jerry BrothertonIn flash, Short Stories9 Comments

For my friends in the U.K. and around the World

It’s times such as these that I wish I could pull some great words of wisdom from the air and lay them out on paper in such a manner that they would make some sense of it all. If only I could reach into my heart and extract those feelings that are there and give them to you so that you might use them as a blanket to protect you and perhaps ease your pain. If I could I would shield you with my pen and write for you a future without sorrow, without hunger, without hatred and without war…because that is what you truly deserve. But I do not have that power. Only God can make the ultimate decisions in how our lives will turn out and we must trust in his wisdom that all things will be provided for us in the end.

Adoption

On By Jerry BrothertonIn flash, Short Stories3 Comments

Adoption

It was just a year ago that Deb and I found what was left of this plant. It had been abandoned and neglected and left for dead. One stringy vine with only two, mostly brown leaves on it wilted over the side of the pot. I was ready to throw it in the trash. I had given up on it.

However, my wife saw something in it that stirred her emotions. She could tell that it was trying, with all the hope that it had left in it, to cling to life. So she moved it to the new house with us. Though it was definitely an eyesore, she set it on the dining room table. It became the center of all attention in the house. There, basking in the warmth of the sun, it drank in the love and happiness that surrounded it.

At first, those two remaining leaves fell to the floor and we thought the shock from being in a new home might have delivered it a death blow. Perhaps it had given up on us. But we still nurtured it, talked to it, fed it…Loved it. One day, a true miracle began to take shape as a tiny green leaf pushed itself into the world. Each day brought more and more surprises to us as we learned how to care for the new addition of our family. It began to flourish and thrive.

Yes, even today you can see the scars of its past life. But those scars do not diminish its beauty. They create its uniqueness. The plant send new stems high into the air… proud and strong. They define what will be its future. Its past is still visible, but through time even those wounds are healing and surviving. Because it knows that someone loved it enough to share their heart, their home, and their love with it…this beautiful life will survive.

Defining Success

On By Jerry BrothertonIn flash, Short Stories10 Comments

There’s only one reason I post on the internet. It’s just to let my ego come out and play for a bit.

I don’t do it for money. In 2006, Publisher’s Weekly reported that the average book sold less than 500 copies. That means that in order to make $30000, a person would have to charge $60 per book. Or in most cases where a book does good to sell 100 copies, $600 per book.

I don’t do it for fame. WordPress, the host of this blog reports that there are 84.3 million new posts on the internet every month. Each month, people view more than 23.3 billion pages (that’s billion with a bold, upper case, hi-lighted in yellow, B). So the odds of even getting read by a total stranger is .1652% or 1 in 4,956,000 people on the internet. That is mind boggling. All I can say is that 1 person that stumbled onto my site will be one lucky dude.

So why do I keep putting my words out there for the world to scrutinize? It’s the thrill of that instant endorphin rush. When I say  that I’m a comment junkie, it’s true. I  admit it, each time I open my Facebook page, or my blog site www.thebackyardpoet.com my heart leaps a bit. I’m an instant gratification poet. I write my words, put them out into the world through the network of social media and wait impatiently. I am not a patient man. If you don’t believe me, just ask my wife.

I tend to post most things at midnight so sometimes I have also have to spend a sleepless night waiting for you guys to send me some love.

Hopefully, you will give me some likes… maybe even a few of those heart shaped emoji’s. I break out into my happy dance each time I have a comment (it’s not something you would want to see but it makes my wife smile). But the ultimate Nirvana is when (lo and behold), someone has cared enough to share my creation with their friends. To see there was at least one person that ‘got’ what I had to say is as good as it’s ever going to get.

I’ve thought about this a lot… I believe the greatest honor I could receive as an artist (and I use that term loosely) is to have someone know a piece of my work by heart. Or that someone might tell their children about a story I shared. Or I hear a group of friends sharing coffee at their local coffee shop and discussing some piece of my work.

We (the people who push our words out into the world to be criticized, analyzed and dissected) imagine these things even if they don’t really happen. In my imagination, I see a teenager sitting alone in the park reading my poetry and understanding that life is worth it after all. Sometimes, my mind dreams of two young lovers lying on a hillside in the bright afternoon sun, quoting my words to each other as they fall in love. Images like that are what I see with each comment, each like and each share.

So that is what keeps me going. For me, a small group of devoted fans is worth far more than selling a million books. Because fortunes fade, fame is fleeting, but good friendship will last forever.

Jerry Brotherton

The Backyard Poet

http://www.thebackyardpoet.com

©All Rights Reserved 2017

Happy Mother’s Day

On By Jerry BrothertonIn flash, Short Stories4 Comments

Let me start by saying that being a mother has to be the hardest and possibly the most thankless job in the world.

Just take a look at what the average mom will go through in the 6570 days (18 years) until her brood finally leaves home. But can she rest then…No. Then her work really starts after they return home with grandchildren.

Meals cooked – 3 times per day @ 60 minutes per meal = 821.25 Days

Dishes washed – being conservative to say once a day for 30 minutes = 136.875 days

Laundry – once per week @ 6 hours = 234.65 days

Grocery Shopping – once per week @ 3 hours 117.32 days

Being a doctor to colds, mumps, measles, teenage depression, husband’s bad day at work…etc. – 273.75 days

Sleep – 6 hours per night if she is lucky – 1642.5

Cleaning up the mess around the house – Vacuuming, dusting, mopping, picking up dirty underwear stuffed under the kid’s bed. – 547.5 days

That works out to be 3773.84 Days

That leaves 2796 days or (DRUM ROLL PLEASE)

2.39 hours per day… to work her full time job of 40 hours a week

So this is for you dear mother

 

Mother

You are the strength and determination

That keeps the gears of life greased

With your inspiration

You are the compassion, the forgiveness

The hope, the love

The dreams fulfilled

You are the safe haven

Those happy memories

The joy, the life, the beginning

You are the sleepless, scared and scarred

The comforter of the sick and week

You are without complaint

You are

Mother

 

Jerry Brotherton

The Backyard Poet

http://www.thebackyardpoet.com

©All Rights Reserved 2017