A FOLKLORIC FAMILY HISTORY: DAEMONIA

(a working title)

 

So if my family was still alive

The family reunion

On this Beltane Eve

Would resemble a wax museum

Of Horror creatures from books and film:

Vampires, flying Mortar & Pestle herbalists,

Shapeshifters, forest deities, poisoners,

And the wolfman I eventually marry

I’m Iris Versicolor

Yes, the name of a poison

Mama named all four of us girls

After poisons because

She never received the requisite

Amount of vampire bites

To make her completely immortal

So she filled up with toxic thoughts

Lost her moral compass

And grew poisons

By the time she went to Daemonia

To find Dracul, her grandfather,

Demanding he give her the last bite,

Her mind was consumed with

Deadly Night Shades,

Versicolors, Mercuries,

Arsenics and Hemlocks

An anonymous texter reported

Her death to me, using her phone

Said Mama was cremated

But we were welcome to be guests

Of Great-Grandpa Dracul

Daemonia’s a scary place

On the edge of the planet

I didn’t want to go

Then the war started and

The final cataclysm hit

Pulling the plug on electricity

Computers, air conditioners

(We lived in hot & humid Florida)

And no gas for cars

So my sister Belladonna stayed

She was pregnant and getting married

And the twins Arsenica & Arnica disappeared

So it was up to me to go

Anyway, have lots to tell you

Will probably repeat myself

But it’s all fun, I think…

 

HERE’S TO A HAPPY & HEALTHY BELTANE!

(Bright Fire, Beginning of Summer)

 

© 2025 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

Image: Bright Fire

 

 

 

MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMEONE

SHAKESPEARE BIRTHDAY SONNET, APRIL 23, 1564

 

(USING THE FIRST LINES OF HIS SONNETS)

 

#60 Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye

#88 When thou shalt be disposed to set me light

#66 Tired with all these, for restful death I cry

#80 O, how I faint when I of you do write

.

#139 O, call not me to justify the wrong

#150 O, from what power hast thou this powerful might

#100 Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long

#28 How can I then return in happy plight

 

#43 When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see

#66 Tired with all these, for restful death I cry

#52 So am I as the rich, whose blessed key

#115 Those lines that I before have writ do lie

 

#56 Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said

#71 No longer mourn for me when I am dead

 

© 2014 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja) and William Shakespeare

Image: Creative Commons stylized picture of The Bard

 

 

 

 

EARTH DAY 2025  song in progress

 

TODAY, SO RIGHT TO PLANT A TREE

IF ELEMENTS ARE OUT OF CONTROL

BUT LET’S NEVER FORGET CHEMISTRY

HELP PATCH UP THE OZONE HOLE

 

FIERY SUN SPOTS WILL SLAUGHTER

THE PEACE OF ELEMENTS GENTLY GLIDING

AFFECTING WHIRLING WINDS OF WATER

AS EARTH IS SLIPPING AND SLIDING

 

LET’S NOURISH OUR PERFECT HOME

KEEP EARTH CLEAR OF TOXICITY

REPLACE THE UNNEEDED POISON

WITH POSITIVE ALCHEMY…

 

© 2025 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Marigolds / Mulberries 2025

FOR DENISE FLETCHER 1960-2025

 

Last Thursday a nightmare

Small brown wren flew into my hair

Dug in its claws

And I pried it out in fright

Awake, I whispered to the Cosmos

Please don’t let anyone be dead

Since the last time a bird attacked me

Was when awake, a

Huge red-headed woodpecker

Became tangled in my hair

And my beloved aunt was dead

Birds, my psychopomp

Yet aren’t they supposed to be gentle?

 

Denise had introduced me to the sister of

Her Life Partner Jim via Gmail

Fortunately, she contacted me yesterday

To say that Denise had passed away

I was shocked although I knew Denise

Missed Jim who died last year 

When Denise told me she had cancer I went into denial

And the next day by phone

Told her how I cried

She comforted me saying she had three years

Before she died

A kind lie I willingly grasped

 

So here I was on Friday

Clicking through Amazon

Trying to decide on a small

Easter bouquet for Denise

Not knowing she was gone

Why did I not know?

 

I thought about her the next two days

How wonderful it had been to live 20 minutes away

And how we would meet at Sims Park and feed the ducks

Or how we would read and critique each other’s poems

We originally met because we were both published

In a Florida poetry anthology

She saw how close we lived and

Contacted me on Facebook, naturally

Denise wrote great poems and painted

Jim was a graphic artist and photographer

 

A few years passed but then Jim became ill

No longer drove and Denise stayed home

Roomie and I had problems with our eyes

So we did not drive either

But Denise and I remained soul sisters

Texted, phoned, messaged almost daily

Proving that people can remain close

Even if we can no longer hug or

See the expressions on our faces

 

I don’t know what to think

She and Jim much too young

I always thought we would one day

Manage a taxi ride to the park

Laugh at the ibis and duck antics

Words tumbling out as

We sheltered under a tree

Yet, it was not to be

 

So I send you my love, Denise

Watching it float above the clouds

And into the Universe

Hoping we will talk again

Even if only in my dreams…

 

© 2025 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: CS & Denise at Sims Park / Denise in one of Jim’s graphics

 

Poem by Denise Fletcher / See her book Imagine Nation © February 2024

Imagine Nation: Fletcher, Denise: 9798398475845: Amazon.com: Books

 

(I like this one because we were once laughing about how I was in love with the anonymous poet of Beowulf and she was in love with Elvis whom she considered a reincarnation of the bards of old)

 

Ye Old Bards

By Denise Fletcher

 

Thank you ye old bards

For spilling your heart blood

Onto parchment and wrenching

Out your inner core for

All the world to see

 

 

 

 

 

 

ON AUTISM

When the first fish
Walked out of the water
On newly-formed limbs
The ferns and trees
Must have clucked
Blaming these new mutations
On vaccinations
An adaptive immunity
Present in the seas
On affected chromosomes
From chemical run-off
Into the water
Now that there is an
“Alarmingly” high incidence
Of autism,
And being HFA
On the spectrum
Myself,
I cannot help wondering
Whether we are the
Next evolutionary step
Is it just time
For a change in humanity
Like a new human
Who is unable to understand
The expressions on the faces of others
Yet is also unable to tell a lie
Like a new human
Who seems alien
(So alienated we are)
Yet intelligent “savants”
Who have often brought
Gifts as important as Prometheus’
Fire to mankind
Will we someday be labeled
(Our genus and species)
By binomial nomenclature
As Homo autisticus*
Rather than Homo sapiens?
Just wondering…

 

© 2015 (repost) Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Autism Awareness ribbon by pngtree.com

 

*I invented this nomenclature, as far as I know, and cannot remember my Latin grammar from 50+ years ago.  If you know it, tell me (kindly) or just smile. Thanks!

 

REMINDER: NOT ALL AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER PEOPLE ARE THE SAME