family – Page 19 – Noreen Lace

Available

Published on January 23, 2016February 3, 2016 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

Before my mother drank herself to death…..

front cover

West End

Published on January 17, 2016January 17, 2016 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

A Sneak Peek from _West End_

Published on January 13, 2016January 13, 2016 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

baby face

As a child, I watched a squirrel crawl along an electrical line, elegant, delicate, like some high wire act, yet gone terribly wrong when it slipped and fell before my eyes.

A motorist passed, hit it. The squirrel screeched human sounds, jumped up on back feet, front paws stretched out, stumbled left, then right.

“It’s a dead end.” Mother’s whispered words lifted with a breeze.

“It’s the West End.” My father leaned away from her.

I held my breath, rooted for the squirrel until the very end, hoped that the car missed and, somehow, the creature might’ve a chance to limp home to recover.

But the squirrel was, life was, inextricably lost.

“Same thing,” mother’s quiet voice floated off with her gaze.

I think of that eye bulging from the squirrel’s body, trying to escape its own death, watching me through the back window of an old Chevy wagon.

Grandma’s Tour

Published on November 12, 2015December 4, 2015 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

My Poem, “Grandma’s Tour” will be published in Pilcrow & Dagger’s November/December issue!

This is especially poignant as my grandmother passed in August of this year. She wrote poetry herself and left me her book of touching, handwritten poems. It is one of my treasured texts.

I think she would’ve liked this poem. I’m saddened she didn’t get to read it or see it published in her honor.

Of Strays and Exes… And better yet – Friends. Congrats to Jo Rousseau!

Published on November 5, 2015November 5, 2015 by Noreen LaceLeave a comment

I’ve been asked to read my as-of-yet unpublished fictional story “Of Strays and Exes” at Jo Rousseau‘s publication party.

Jo Rousseau is celebrating the publication of her first book of short stories, titled Inside Stories.

She’s published short stories and won Charter House Press’ essay contest last year with her touching memoir “Becoming Rousseau”, which is available in Banking the Bacon.