The Greatest Gift

In a pool of blood

I rose up from the floor

I grabbed your picture

And realized I wanted more

To make you proud

Has been my greatest wish

And you’ll never know

It’s in your shadow I truly miss.

To be your friend was

The greatest gift of all

You’d always catch me

When I’d stumble and fall.

From the cradle we grew

To be the closest friends

And when I moved from you

I felt my heart’d never mend

Without you there I sat, alone

For you alone I often cried

My tears built a river

Where my soul had first died

My innocence stripped

And purity washed away

Without you there to hold

My heart began to stray.

No longer happy

A flower once, now wilted

And for my sins

My soul blackened, hilted

But once again you came

To walk along side me

And your warmth molded

Who I would come to be

And your conviction

Helped my weary heart mend

And you will forever

Be my truest and dearest friend.

©Pamela N. Brown

The Old Mulberry Tree

You were once my sanctuary
Until one day you proved to betray me
You let the wind open branches so they could see
Me hiding among the limbs above in thee

It was then frightening in you, Mulberry Tree
You hide my most sacred memories
You tell not the secrets of what they did to me
Or why I used to hide in that among thee

From nightmares I wake when I dream of thee
That one, huge, old, scary tree
You still stands there from what I can see
On the corner of where I used to be

I want to take you down, Mulberry Tree
Maybe my secrets could die there with thee
And frightened again may I never be
Until you are gone I will still fear thee

© Pamela N. Brown

Skull

The Book of Life

Awaking moments open a new page
Every thought is just another sentence
Every hour is a new paragraph
Every cry is a new question - Why?
Every doubt is a new fact
Every laugh is a new exclamation
When eyes close, the writing does not stop
Dreams are branded deep onto every page
As if it were waking moments
Every day opens a new page with new dreams,
Hopes and beginnings
Every emotion adds to this book, even hatred
Hopefully all books will be long
Full of life, love adventure and prosperity
Not all books are long and full
For only death can close any book
NO ONE lives forever!

© Pamela N. Brown

2010 Reading List

1. Andersen’s Fairy Tales – Hans Christian Andersen
2. “Antigone” – Sophocles
3. “Arachnaphobia” – Catherine Brophy
4. Arch Enemy – Frank Beddor
5. Ask and Tell: Self-Advocacy and Disclosure for People on the Autism Spectrum – Ruth Elaine Joyner Hane, Kassiane Sibley, Stephen M. Shore, Roger N. Meyer, Phil Schwarz, Liane Holliday Willey
6. Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure – Paul A. Offit
7. Autistic Like Me – Jennifer Elder
8. Beastly – Alex Flinn
9. Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome, Second Edition – Stephen M. Shore
10. Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand – Louise Hawes
11. Boneshaker – Cherie Priest
12. Breaking Dawn – Stephanie Meyer
13. “The Bride” – M.P. Shiel
14. “The Cedar Closet” – Patrick Lafcadio Hearn
15. Dark Carnival – James A. Moore
16. Daughters of the Witching Hill – Mary Sharratt
17. The Devil’s Rose – Brom
18. Dracula – Bram Stoker
19. Eats, Shoots and Leaves – Lynne Truss
20. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyers
21. Emergence: Labeled Autistic – Temple Grandin
22. “Encounter at Night” – Mary Frances McHugh
23. Fathom – Cherie Priest
24. The Finale – Calvin Miller
25. “Five Pounds of Flesh” – J.M. Synge
26. “Fly Away Finger, Fly Away Thumb” – Brian Moore
27. “Footsteps In the Lobby” – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
28. Gathering Blue – Lois Lowry
29. Ghost Stories of California – Barbara Smith
30. Green Witch – Alice Hoffman
31. “A House Possessed” – Sax Rohmer
32. Indigo – Alice Hoffman
33. The Last Battle – C.S. Lewis
34. “Last Rites” – Neil Jordan
35. Little Vampire Women – Alcott & Messina
36. Living Dead Girl – Elizabeth Scott
37. The Looking Glass Wars – Frank Beddor
38. Love Medicine – Louise Erdrich
39. “The Man from Shorrox” – Bram Stoker
40. Married With Zombies – Jesse Peterson
41. The Messenger – Lois Lowry
42. “The Miraculous Revenge” – George Bernard Shaw
43. New Moon – Stephenie Meyer
44. Night – Elie Wiesel
45. On Writing – Stephen King
46. Pride And Prejudice And Zombies – Jane Austen & Seth Grahame Smith
47. Pride And Prejudice And Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls – Jane Austen & Steve Hockensmith
48. Ravens – George Dawes Green
49. Rip Van Winkle – Washington Irving
50. Seeing Redd – Frank Beddor
51. The Silver Chair – C.S. Lewis
52. The Singer – Calvin Miller
53. The Song – Calvin Miller
54. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
55. To Serve and Submit – Susan Wright
56. Vampire Stories – Richard Dalby
57. The Way I See It – Temple Grandin
58. “Will” – Vincent O’Sullivan
59. Witch – Candace Savage
60. A Wizard Alone – Diane Duane
61. World War Z – Max Brooks