Ignore Me Like You Mean It

Mom was diagnosed with stage 4 acinar carcinoma pancreatic cancer a while ago. Acinar carcinoma only affects about 4% of the population with pancan. Even after treatment at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, they had only seen a few cases and even with treatment her tumor was growing. She had the whipple in 2019. Fast forward to today, she’s been living with me and my 8 year old son (The Boy) for about 2 years now and it’s been back and forth from Northern Alabama to Atlanta every other week. That stopped when they said the treatment wasn’t working.  They sent Mom home. She did great for a while, but she’s slowly getting weaker and weaker and after a fall last night we made the decision that she won’t be moving around the house anymore. Thank God for Southern Beacon hospice. We’ve got a wonderful nurse and everything we need so she can stay in the bed. Yall, she’s so tiny. I can see every ligament on her poor little body. This woman has had cancer like 4 times. She’s a damn troop...

For now, I have this: Widespread Panic For Uvalde Can you see the possibilities  The feet laying silent in the crowd The quiet corruption of a world gone mad Shouting silently from securities unanswered phone I wish I’d owned a looking glass  A quiet transfer of violence all my own. The crowds parted in silent revelation, A madman’s place completely at home Pikachu stares from the stands Rivers streaming over and above Music that hangs in the silence  Of a bands best wishes fallen from the throne Helpless bubbles of pregnant pauses  Playing dead like the bones that draw their due. Shoes filled with blood red notes of exultation  In an unexpected recording of “where are you?” A five year olds homework splattered- on the floor Violence takes multiple stages From here I am to there they lay Uvelde in outrageous stages- Columbine, Aurora, Parkland and more. (c) Krystal Turner 2022

Mom Chronicles Day 1,940 April 5, 2022 Mom: “Do you want anything special for dinner?” Myles “Pizza is my destiny. That’s why I came to Earth. For the pizza.” 😆😆 Later I tried to explain something to him (he wants to start wearing nightshirts) and I was basically going to say if someone picks on you for wearing them to bed ignore them. I started to use wimp, but he didn’t know what that meant and I’m not defining a negative word. Then I tried a couple other words. Like sissy. He came back with, “like a sissy and a bubba?” Crissey And I was like oh I see no not like that. It’s hard to remember sometimes just how totally innocent he is, especially with that quick wit and the ability to make jokes that some adults wouldn’t get. Sissy and bubba are his brother and sister. Signing off on the chronicles for now. I need to do better. You may have noticed there are no more photos of Myles. Not new or recent ones anyway.  I decided to keep his face off the internet now that he’s growing u...

How can this beautiful moon I look at be the same moon that Putin looks upon at the same time Ukrainian refugees look at it? I honestly don’t understand how all of these things could possibly happen at the same time and yet- We are not peaceful. We don’t understand each other. All we see are boundaries, colors and lines. The things that divide us. Nothing is made of the thing that unites us. It doesn’t matter that we are all made of flesh, bond and sinew or that we look upon the same stars and possibly worship the same God.

 Yesterday was 5 months since I lost my Daddy. It really hit home because Dad (we call step parents bonus dads or moms) has now been placed in a memory care facility.  And for the first time this week, Dad didn’t know who I was. He thought my son was his. Mom is being denied her surgery (twice now) by insurance. They’re sentencing her to death. If they don’t do anything we’re looking at roughly 8-12 months. Then again she beat it once but they nearly killed her with that surgery. I am not okay.  I can't begin to describe the gut wrenchingly painful experience of losing my Daddy. The slow moving knowledge that he will never wrap his arms around me again.  We think of losing a parent and everyone experiences this. It's so hard. To lose a parent so swiftly, so suddenly, when they are supposed to be going home, only to be gone (I can't even write the 'D' word yet) within a week... It's indescribable. It is the hardest thing I've ever gone through. Now lose two w...

I am so fucking tired. I am so tired of being tired. I am so tired of being so tired that I go to bed at 8:30 p.m., only to lie awake for hours in the middle of the night. I am so tired of not having time with my spouse to actually enjoy each other or talk about things other than the pandemic. I am so tired of mitigating risk by the hour. I am so tired of internally debating whether my kids’ response to something is pandemic-related or not. I am so tired of selfish people. I am so tired of dumb people. I am so tired of lazy people. I am so tired of being angry. I am so tired of feeling so much rage toward strangers. I am so tired of my kids. I am so tired of my kids not being able to get a vaccine. I am so tired of talking about new variants.  I am so tired of drinking to quell the pain. I am so tired of living in “Groundhog Day.” I am so tired of saying, “That’s it, I’m done,” only to, of course, not actually be done. I am so tired of worrying about long COVID-19 and what we don’t...