The Stillness Before the Dawn

All is still;

my favorite time.

Family sound asleep

...snoring.

Waiting for the Sun

to show his

joyous visage.

Reveling in the quiet

before chaos begins

the day.

A Girl Without A Home

Snow covers the ground

A chill is in the air

Silence is all around

The wind blows through her hair.

Trees sway to and fro

Cars pass by on the street

She has nowhere to go

And she needs to something to eat.

A girl without a home

No bed where she can rest

All she does is roam

Wondering, is this some kind of test?

A gunshot splits the night

Her dirty face looks to the sky

Her heart beats fast in fright

Was the shot nearby?

Metal shines in the moonlight

A garbage bin looms ahead

She pulls her sweater tight

Maybe she'll find a little bread.

Grunting she crawls inside

She searches through the debris

Half a turkey sandwich she finds

And devours it with glee.

Her evening meal now done

She wanders once again

She's waiting for the sun

And trying to ignore the pain.

A Short Autobiography

I was born in a beautiful town in Nova Scotia, on the East Coast of Canada in the Winter of 1978. I grew up in picturesque Wolfville, home of Acadia University.

When I was four my younger brother was born the day before what is now my favorite holiday; Halloween. In my sixth year my parents split up and my mother moved away. My father's mother, my grandmother, passed away after fighting a long battle with brain cancer when I was just shy of eleven years old. My father remarried when I was 12 and we moved to Newfoundland when I was 13. From there, I moved to Edmonton, Alberta to live with my mother. I lived in Alberta for almost two years before growing homesick and moving back to Nova Scotia, where my father returned after the end of his second marriage. I remained in Nova Scotia for four tumultuous years.

In 1998, when I was 19, two of my friends got into a horrific car accident on Apple Blossom weekend and died. This was a turning point for me, and I moved back to Alberta.

I moved back and forth between Nova Scotia and Alberta for a couple more years before meeting my common law husband, Justin. We met in Alberta when I was 24. A year to the day after we met, we welcomed our first child, Gavin, into the world. Gavin was born eight weeks early. Fifteen months after that, our daughter, Chloe, was born. She was born two weeks early.

Since having the children we have moved 14 times, living in Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, & Newfoundland. Currently, we live in the North End of Winnipeg, Manitoba, where I volunteer at my local community centre.

I am a daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, aunt, witch, grand-daughter, cousin, niece, and more!

I am ME.

And my story is far from over.