Adelia Ritchie

Published in The Open Kimono

·Pinned

What to Wear to the Pentagon

and NEVER make this mistake! — Navy whites, Army green, Air Force blue shade 1620. Civilian men in midnight blue starched collars, colorful ties. I too had a seat at the table Didn’t fetch coffee Never took notes Spoke my mind clearly — and probably too often. Wore green to Army meetings, dark blue for Navy black suit…

Poetry On Medium

2 min read

Published in The Open Kimono

·Pinned

In My Dreams

Not to be confused with wishful thinking — In dreams I can fly but the plane crashes and I save everyone onboard In dreams I’m in high school but cannot find my locker nor my classroom In dreams I’m a teacher but cannot find the science building nor the admin building for directions In dreams I offer to…

Poetry On Medium

3 min read

Published in The Open Kimono

·Pinned

The End of Our Third Quarters

Our approaching birthdays generated a 75-word novel challenge — Just like the succinct signage in the photo above, less can be more. These three simple words scrawled onto a ripped and dirty scrap of cardboard tell us almost everything we need to know about the person holding this sign. Nothing more needs to be said. On the other hand…

Challenge

3 min read

Published in The Open Kimono

·Mar 7

Monkey Balls

TOK Editorial Board meeting notes (3/6/22) — Conversations between the editors at TOK should be censored, nuked, thrown in jail, and worst of all, ignored. This begins a new series of random convos between a couple of ancient stoners who happen not to give a shit what people think, as long as they keep laughing. Daniel Lee…

Humor

3 min read

Published in Doctor Funny

·Mar 6

Ode to Dr. Burg’s Limerick Challenge

It was a while back, but I let it air out for a few months — There once was a limerick war that’s become a sickening bore. This doctor named Michael, in a ne’er-ending cycle, writes poems that people abhor. I can’t write limericks anymore. If I do, they stay in a drawer. Burg challenges friends, makes no amends, because he can’t write and he’s sore. …

Limerick

1 min read

Published in The Open Kimono

·Mar 1

Good News Flows from The Open Kimono

Our writers rock! — February has been an interesting, if not exciting, month, on many levels. …

Life

3 min read

Published in The Open Kimono

·Feb 27

Standing with Ukraine

and feeling her pain — Post-Soviet years working in Eastern Europe — Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine — my heart was warmed, I was utterly charmed by new friends in Kyiv, didn’t want to leave this proud democracy. Brightly colored façades, love’s bright new theme erased memories, smothered oppressive gray of previous regime. Today…

75 Word Poem

2 min read

Published in ILLUMINATION

·Feb 22

What Dermatologists & Veterinarians Don’t Know

And how it affects every one of us and our pets. — I thought I was as fed up with BigPharma as I could possibly be, and then this happened—a recent visit to my dermatologist to help with an itchy scalp that was driving me completely nuts. According to Wikipedia, a dermatologist is a specialist medical doctor who manages diseases related to…

Dermatology

8 min read

What Dermatologists & Veterinarians Don’t Know

Published in Doctor Funny

·Feb 10

Peeing Into the Abyss

Sometimes ya gotta go, even when you’re already on the way out — When my heart doesn’t beat I can peek into the darkness that might follow Just a clue, that’s all I ask. I want to know what’s on the other side but the med tech has other plans, pumps a gallon of fluids into my vein. Oh no. I must pee! Hole…

Poetry On Medium

2 min read

Published in The Open Kimono

·Feb 9

They Teach the Children

Is it education? Or brainwashing? — They teach them to fight, build stadiums for sport but where are the parks where they learn to play? They teach them civics, but not civility, history but not truth, war, but not how to make peace They teach them business, profit and loss, but don’t teach them what’s right, what’s good for…

Education

2 min read