Being Single

Being single isn't all bad.
In fact it's kind of liberating.
Your mood isn't dependent
whether you've heard from someone or not.
You have no one to answer to
and can go out with your friends without having to text
or call someone to let them know when you're coming home.
You're in control of your finances and
don't have to worry about someone else wracking up debt.
You don't feel obligated to have sex when you're tired or just not in the mood.
There's no need to worry what someone thinks of you naked.
You don't  have to deal with jealosy--yours--or theirs.

Nor worry if that person is there to stay.

I love being single.
So why do I often wish I weren't?



Olivia McGuire

Experiencing Bigotry

During the 70's at the age of three my mom and I were new to this country. My Filipino father had brought us over from the Philippines. We didn't have a car at first and when my mom and I wanted to go out we simply walked to the shopping center nearby while my dad was at work. One of the stores we'd frequent was People's Drug. Mom would sometimes treat us to a meal or a piece of pie at the counter. Once when we sat down next to a much older man, he looked at us with contempt most likely because we weren't white or like him; and mind you I was an adorable little girl that many fawned over. I don't actually remember the incident, but my mother has brought it up through the years. This bigoted man actually got up--and moved. How sad that not even a cute little toddler could warm this man's heart. And little did that man know that my father was serving the United States Navy and was a Vietnam  Vet. My father had brought us here so we could have a better  life, the American Dream, just like that man's ancestors did. We lived in Portsmouth, Virginia and in Navy housing at the time. I have much fondness of those places and time in spite of what happened and any racism I encountered later. I was my daddy's girl and my mother's too. And together along with my brother we made a life here in Virginia.

Olivia McGuire

Author's Note
My father died several years later from cancer when I was just ten. I am a published author and have been published in Medical Literary Messenger, The Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazzette, and Cafe Eighties.

I Am Made

i am made up of blood and flesh

heart and soul

brains and beauty

assets and faults

magic and reality

love and hate

dust and stars 

Olivia McGuire

snow haiku

snowdrifts through the night
can hear icicles breaking
the world seems at peace


Olivia McGuire