Saturday, May 3, 2014

Grocery Superhero


Today was a crazy day.  Shopping at the zoo known as Costco, then over to the Superstore for groceries today.  I am not a crowd person to begin with, but today took the cake there were people everywhere!  I was ecstatic when I was finished my long list and could get my son, mum and heaping buggy to the checkout line, even if they were 6 people deep.  Until that is, when twenty minutes later I got right behind the guy who was next to be rung in. 

It wasn’t that he was odd or rude… actually he was quite funny.  It was when I heard him saying: “What?! You want me to what?!”  To the cashier, then he turned to all of us behind him with a concerned face, and turned back to her and said, “I’m not going to tell them that.  I am not going to do your job for you.  How can you do that to them?  They have already been waiting in line, you can’t tell them you are going to close down.”  This is when things began to unravel and I began to talk to the man with the blue cape and red tights before me. 

“What is she saying?” I asked him, while I watched the cashier turn off her light and set her jaw.

“She wants all of you to find other tills.” He told me and the rest of the growing growling faces behind us.  “And she wants me to tell you but I refused.  I think you should refuse to find other tills too.”  And thus the caped wonder led the protest, in knee high lace up sneakers.

“I will not move to another till I said blatantly, we have been here so long!” I told him firmly.

“How can they do this we have other things to do today.”  My mother chipped in.

“I will not budge!” Another lady behind her. 

“Just a minute, I know what to do.”  And so I found the supervisor and pleaded our case.  She promised to send another cashier to help out. 

When I got back to the line, Mr. Red Satin Underoo’s says to me “When you were gone the cashier asked me ‘What part of closed doesn’t she understand?’”

I was shocked; I had never been treated so rudely by a cashier before.  “This cashier said that to you about me?”

“Yes!” 

I was just about to lose it when he did it for me and in such a humorous way that all of us behind him were in fits of belly laughter.  The cashier was put firmly in her place, but in a way that was not brutal. 

Then he turned to me and says “That was fun!”

Thanks to my Grocery Superhero we didn’t have to wait all over again.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Mirrored Mortality


I have lost friends since your departure

Maybe they see mirrored mortality
when gazing upon the shell
of who I once was,
choking upon unasked questions

Or perhaps it is the Reaper's echo
reflected within the shadows of
my eyes

I remind of truth;
the uncomfortable reality
of life's impermanence

With a puff of the grim one's breath
everything I understood about
here and now
imploded

Left me on all fours
searching
for pieces of normalcy
while watching cherry blossoms
marry the winds

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Shards of Gone

I would walk over earth and stone
To hear the lilt of your laugh once more
Swim vast seas current to
Breathe again your scent
Jump over an abyss
If it meant one more heated argument

Is a moment ever really lived
And appreciated
When its finality is not known but
Only hinted of in glimpses

Death waits with humor-curled lips
Until you find yourself standing in without
And left staring at what remains within
An empty husk of what you were
Before the shards of gone

I cry into puddles of missing
Longing for future moments never born
Wondering when it will get easier
And your memories reflection
Won’t sear as deep

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Waiting


Shall I pull stitches from torn flesh,
to prove you my pain?
Or would that only evidence my mortal status
before your concrete, community throne?
You have stolen and silenced a voice;
taken possession which you can never be worthy. 

You of lofty pose,
pray you seek to fly over the balance of scales
may you climb higher and higher.
For I shall sharpen my saber,
creep close to the ground,
and cut down your beanstalk. 

Within the mists where you find refuge
I shall crouch and bide my time
for when you least expect it
I will be there to remind you
of what you are beholden.

Sunday, November 17, 2013


I was able to place a story in this Chicken Soup of the Soul: Think Positive for Kids.  Story #65, pg 220 "Playing Chicken."

Friday, October 4, 2013

Interview with the Lantzville Log

Please come and check out my interview with a local newspaper about Pulp Tattoos and writing in general. 

http://thelog.ca/2013/09/local-artists-poetry-book-launch/

Thanks so much!

Tracie Skarbo

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Pulp Tattoos

I am very pleased and excited to let you know of my latest volume called Pulp Tattoos.  This collaboration with the multi talented photographer Deana Landrum, has been a wonderful experience, and well worth the time and effort!  I hope you enjoy the pages within.



http://www.amazon.com/Pulp-Tattoos-Tracie-Skarbo/dp/1490510729/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379877866&sr=8-1&keywords=Pulp+tattoos