A poem — Letting go of your dreams is hard work. They say expectations can only end in disappointment. To expect is to predict, and none of us are truly fortune tellers. Anything can happen, really. But when we dream, we dare to have the audacity to tell our own fortunes and expect them…

She also got flack for being a wife and mother, but it didn’t stop Fanny from chasing her dream — Upon arriving in London to compete in the 1948 Olympics, 30-year-old Fanny Blankers-Koen lifted a finger, pointed it directly at the man who had called her “too old to make the grade,” and simply said, “I show you.” Show him, she did — the Dutch mother-of-two left the Olympics that…

Ad Cole, legendary Black madam was one of the city’s first — When police dragged Adaline “Ad” Cole to jail as part of a sting on Peoria’s brothels on the night of November 13, 1875, she was slapped with a $28.05 fine, so the legendary madam reached down into her stocking and offered up a $1,000 bill. When the authorities couldn’t break…

Some of us never learned the lesson — not for paper, nor for people. — Do you remember learning how to make snowflakes out of paper? You know, The way we were taught when we were young? Young enough that We still needed the small scissors with Bright colored handles and Duller, shorter blades– The ones that were so good At cutting paper and Not cutting us, Even despite our Reckless, tiny…

…until she was wrongfully convicted of murder. — When a violent, angry man kicked down the door of her brothel looking for a fight on the morning of September 29, 1930, Diamond Lil–still in her nightgown–strapped a gun belt and holster around her waist and confronted the rabble rouser with gun in hand. The belligerent intruder tried to…

Perhaps one day you will master alchemy and turn metal into flesh I’m running from you Fast and free. I cannot lose myself In the messy void You’ve made. You’re the tin man. I tap your chest and It booms full of emptiness. Your heart is a closed, Hollow vault. …

Is it really persistence, or just coercion? — “Ugh I always do this,” C lamented as her phone suddenly blew up with a series of texts and notifications during dinner. “Do what?” I asked. “I told this guy I was going to be in town for a few days, and now he won’t leave me alone. He’s asked…

Ugly memories of Christmases past are the perfect reminder — The Christmas mornings of my childhood were supposed to be some of the holiest, but they always ended up feeling the most godless. I was raised devout Catholic, but I hated it and never wanted to go to church. That was always especially true on Christmas. I remember how my…

Can’t make it better? Try laughing at it — I’ve had migraines four out of the last five days. And not the little ones that only last for a few hours, I’m talking about the massive ones that take a veritable gauntlet of treatments and pills and entire days to overcome. …