I am sitting up way past my bedtime and listening to the night sounds of my home. The refrigerator steadily hums a long hollow note despite its newly filled shelves. The kitchen light buzzes slightly as an annoying reminder that I will have to replace a long bulb sooner rather than later. The absence of dripping rain along my roof tiles is welcome for I have grown weary of wet pavement and soggy lawn crossings. The river is high in Arkansas this season.

Angry and determined armed men walked across the front of my state Capitol building today. Their cause was dressed in Freedom’s petticoat with the limited edition label “by ALL our means necessary”. Thirteen miles separated them from my doorstep. For this is how we voice our descent now in my Native land. The water is rising in Arkansas.

They pulled a young woman out of the river today. Questions left unanswered, authorities puzzled over the snuffing out of someone so young…and in the same news cycle a drugstore is robbed at gunpoint in small, Southern town. Water runs swiftly through the troubled spaces in Arkansas.

And now we have a new counting game to play.

The times have grown interesting in Arkansas.

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Marta C. Youngblood is the founder and creative engine behind TheWRITEaddiction creatives co-op founded in 2014 as a virtual community supporting writers from all over the United States of America. Marta’s passion drives her to support the success of creatives from all walks of life to honor their talent and share it with the world.
She believes that working in our creative callings does not have to be synonymous with being a “starving artist” and helps creatives master the business skills and strategies they need to work in their gifts