K. L. Shipley
/ GreyThoughts.InfoIf we can’t overcome…
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There are gaps in the tree-line where six tall trees once blocked the sky. The storms of spring knocked them down. I’ve watched…
By K. L. Shipley
Nobody knows what’s …
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Don’t we all? The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see. The groundhog surveys my backyard for exactly the same reason. The birds on the deck are glad to have discovered the delicious seeds somebody foolishly …
By K. L. Shipley
Churr & Click spent their days in …
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Churrr was Chickadee. Click was Sparrow. They had been friends since fledging last spring. No one approved of their friendship but them. Churrr’s father thought her friendship with a Sparrow indecent. Click’s father thought it foolish. Their mothers…
By K. L. Shipley
Mystery revealed by deeper mystery
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The 6-point earthquake did a lot of damage, but the town closest was too far away to even notice - except for seismograph reports they heard on the …
By K. L. Shipley
The phrase, “Nobody cares…
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You can’t. No one can. No matter how sympathetic, or empathetic, you may be to someone else’s pain, you can’t feel it. The nervous system only works for…
By K. L. Shipley
Local flora grow as they will.
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Too often overlooked because of their undemanding ways. Local flora wait demurely like wallflowers never asked to dance, while exotic flora flirt…
By K. L. Shipley
If we can’t overcome…
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There are gaps in the tree-line where six tall trees once blocked the sky. The storms of spring knocked them down. I’ve watched…
By K. L. Shipley
Nobody knows what’s …
————
Don’t we all? The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see. The groundhog surveys my backyard for exactly the same reason. The birds on the deck are glad to have discovered the delicious seeds somebody foolishly …
By K. L. Shipley
Churr & Click spent their days in …
————
Churrr was Chickadee. Click was Sparrow. They had been friends since fledging last spring. No one approved of their friendship but them. Churrr’s father thought her friendship with a Sparrow indecent. Click’s father thought it foolish. Their mothers…
By K. L. Shipley
Mystery revealed by deeper mystery
————
The 6-point earthquake did a lot of damage, but the town closest was too far away to even notice - except for seismograph reports they heard on the …
By K. L. Shipley
The phrase, “Nobody cares…
————
You can’t. No one can. No matter how sympathetic, or empathetic, you may be to someone else’s pain, you can’t feel it. The nervous system only works for…
By K. L. Shipley
Local flora grow as they will.
————
Too often overlooked because of their undemanding ways. Local flora wait demurely like wallflowers never asked to dance, while exotic flora flirt…
By K. L. Shipley
When there's nothing left to adore.
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Yes, it’s come to that.
When this cup is drunk…
By K. L. Shipley
I vow to together, apart.
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Another quiet morning. I sit with my coffee and look through the window. Outside I see Squirrel sitting on her balcony, thoughtfully chewing on …
By K. L. Shipley
Play is always fun.
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I've spent an uncalled-for part of my life in idle play and daydreaming. I've no regret for a minute of …
By K. L. Shipley
Not all fun need be frenetic.
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A tranquil pattering on the leaves, ozone breathing through the screen, thunder rumbling far away, and balmy breeze casting grace ….
By K. L. Shipley
It’ll probably show up…
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So, are you using your little lantern to illuminate ideas that need illuminating? No? I didn’t think so. Well-meaning illumination…
By K. L. Shipley
Echoes of all we've ever …
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…continued his whispering exhortation, “Boredom is a sin against Allah, all of life has beauty and taste . . .
By K. L. Shipley
As my mind drifted…
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Justin is odd. That’s the plain truth of it. I’ve known him since he was born. He was a gentle, kind, daydreamy, sort of …
By K. L. Shipley
Wishing is a tricky business
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My Mother would often say to some overexpectatius wish of mine, “ If wishes were horses, beggars would ride”. Clearly an expression with years of use. Moreover, an expression of brutal reality. Had I taken it to heart, I might’ve avoided…
By K. L. Shipley
A hollow drum holds…
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… his life was really spotless. It was only that he considered it so. Not that he really considered anything. Michael Potts was impervious to legal niceties, moral turpitude, and common sense. Whatever he did was okay…
By K. L. Shipley
Echoes in time..
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…history had barely begun, when ideas were replacing instinct, when grunts were becoming speech, a mysterious people were unknowingly laying the foundation of both western and eastern civilization. Their proto words and beliefs spread across…
By K. L. Shipley
How often does,” Go, Go…
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…sympathies are completely with old Plautus. Yours, too, I imagine. The sun-dial was bad enough. Now we have ever-more refined ways of slicing our days into ever-more itsy-bitsy pieces. We are obsessed by time. We never have enough…
By K. L. Shipley
Suicide, preceded by three…
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…rounds from a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun took the lives of four souls - Floyd Sanford (shot twice), Bessie Lee Sanford, and Rosalie Sanford. Each died from close-range blasts that splattered blood, flesh and bone. The fifth shot was delivered to the chest of the murderer …
By K. L. Shipley
Writing has a unique…
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…three venerable envoys that carry words from our inner musings to the world outside. Which form we choose is determined by what we intend. Prose is usually better for complexity. Song is usually better for …
By K. L. Shipley
“I have an idea, let’s …
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Vat, now I must argue with my toaster about my toast shud be lighter or darker?
…whole life everybody tellin’ me vat to do. Now my toaster tells me vat my toast shud be! No, no, no. I throw that blabbermouth in der trasch and toast my bread over the fire. The fire don’t talk back to…
By K. L. Shipley
Virtue almost demands …
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…word with implicit implication. Careless people are thoughtless. Selfish people are thoughtless. People who don't give a damn about other people are…
By K.L. Shipley
There is something supernatural…
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I have long been fascinated by shallow pools of clear …
By K. L. Shipley
There are a lot of hiding…
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…about six miles deep at its deepest depth in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench. The pressure at that depth is eight tons per sq. inch. The pressure at Ocean’s average depth of fifteen thousand feet is about six tons per …
By K. L. Shipley
Everything falls apart…
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…customer asks the contractor about his newly paved concrete driveway, “Is this concrete guaranteed”? The contractor replies, “It’s guaranteed to…
By K. L. Shipley
Aren't all command…
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… can almost hear the roll of thunder behind the words. The decree precludes any possibility of negotiation or exception. Are there any among us who would not like to have such power? Even timid people secretly wish they could …
By K. L. Shipley
Isn't a dove carrying an olive …
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… do it in slow-motion, one pinpoint strike drawing one drop of blood per peck. They would happily kill faster if they had any weapon deadlier than their ….
By K. L. Shipley
Every father has a grandfather.
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…Robert Billups was father to an ever-growing tribe of offspring - children…
By K. L. Shipley
Dad and I were more alike…
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…but our children inherit our genes. Genes don't die. Genes are immortal in the same way computer chips are immortal. Flesh and bone turn to dust; genes turn to the next host…
By K. L Shipley
Classics are redeemed…
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… come and go. Good stays the same. I learned this wisdom from a man who fled his native Romania after the communists took over. His name was…
By K. L. Shipley
Benny was a nobody, a nearly…
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…Benny had ever been a Jew, it must’a been a long time ago. Now he’s just a nickel & dime crook, the kind’a guy Chandler would’a called a street punk. Benny looked out for Benny…
By K. L. Shipley