Trina

When we were young we were something
Our lives were only limited by our imaginations
We had wings with which to fly and escape
Our frigid lives and our situations

You had your family and I had mine
Close knit in small communities
Yet still we became the closest of friends
Enveloped in each others certainties

Together we had strong faith and wit
We talked about our lives and beyond
You called me "Blenny," and you were the, "Gobi,"
We were two fishes in a great pond

The stories we were going to tell together
Ranged from the obscene to strange
But through it all we laughed and sighed
Didn't care when they called us, "deranged."

We were friends when no one else would have us
Then, when others did care, you remained
A bright star in the constellation of my life
But life never truly remains the same

Instead we grew distant as we went our ways
Our own paths diverted as did our lives
You became a world traveller, inspirational
As I became an academic and a wife

Our friends were what kept us bonded through
Though not talking, you were still in my mind
For though we never met or embraced
There was still those years of kind

After that we stood - the six of us
Upon St Andrews beaches white
The last time we were ever together
What a day it was, a glorious sight

And that memory of that day I will remember
Forever and until the end of time
For even though you are not with us, Trina
Even though you could no longer stand
The pains of every day life
Know that for you, I would have gone
To the ends of the earth

Dreamer

I'm a dreamer
Like my father

Equality gone wrong

"Should a man hit a woman if she spit on him."
A woman sits in a bar, touched the way no woman should be.
Unwanted, uncalled for, shockingly and without reserve.
Harrassment.
A man waits at a street corner, turns and mistakenly looks
At a woman's backside, breasts, lips.
Harrassment?
Then that woman, she slaps him.
Justified?
We talk about equality, like for like, measure for measure.
An endless cycle of discussion and "Time's Up" and black dresses to the Baftas.
The fists rise into the air in solidarity
People leave their jobs for the sake of gender pay equality.
But does equality mean that measure for measure should enact?
"Should a man hit a woman if she spit on him."
Yes, because if equal, then equally treated they must be.
Yes, as if you want to be the same as a man, then punished you should be.
Yes, they cry, because I'm not going to hold the door for you anymore.
I don't have to be a "gentleman". 
Don't have to offer you my jacket if it is cold.
Shouldn't be expected to pay for meals on dates.
Should not be treated as if any look is a case of harrassment.
"Should a man hit a woman if she spit on him."
...
Perhaps the woman should not spit in the first place.
Perhaps the situation should not arise.
Perhaps different questions should be asked, such as, "Why don't we all open doors for each other."
Or "lend your jacket to all out in the cold."
And "do not spit, hit, hate."
And "do not hit back, whether you are male, female, black, Asian, white, gay, straight, old, young, Hindu, Muslim, African, Austrian, blue eyed, brown eyed, an idiot, a genius, left voter, right voter, evolutionist, flat-earther ..."
Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold.
Perhaps we should never have written the recipe.