Better to Marry than Burn
I wouldn’t refer to my first time as fire. But after reading the diary of 13-year-old me (got laid, I recorded for posterity), father invited pastor to our living room to agree over coffee that I am sexually dysfunctional. Just before I turned 14, mother waved in my face the Read more
The Hierarchy of Existence
I can hear sanguine words with every beep, whoosh, expansion, and dink dink the vital sign machine makes. I see the other families clinging to them for dear life, as the used tissues gather into moist mounds in the trash bin.
The Thing with Divorce?
It leaves a scent. Like a barbecue cooking in a new neighbors backyard, on a hot summer day. Men get a whiff, and they want to be invited over. They want to see what’s new on the grill. You’ll find them pop up from the other side of the wall Read more
Ciao Bella
Lili waited for a smile of approval from her mother before she inched closer to the end of the diving board. Maman smiled, waved, and watched her 5-year-old daughter ready herself for another ‘perfect dive!’ Lili shrugged her little shoulders to loosen them up, took a deep breath, and, without Read more
When Giving Up is Not an Option
Clementine Bihiga was born in 1986. She is an inspirational speaker and the author of “Happily Broken: Discovering Happiness Through Pain and Suffering”. When Clementine was eight years old her family was forced to flee their home in Rwanda. The Genocide and Civil war of 1994 killed almost 1 Million people Read more
Noises and PTSD
There’s a rhythmic booming sound It’s a fist banging against at a door while someone cowers in the corner of the room on the other side Hoping the lock will hold as the wood shivers with the pounding… No, he assures me, it’s just some hammering or someone on the Read more
What It Was Worth
For a while, I follow your blue eyes glowing off the stereo, then tuck myself into you, inhaling your smell, remembering our summer in my four-poster bed. You wrapped me in your robe, we passed joints in the sunlight of my bathtub. At night, you laid your muscle under my pillow. Read more