Loneliness Looks Like Hunger
For a while, you lived in a room without a TV Or a garbage disposal, and it was so quiet You heard the refrigerator moan, two dogs Barking at each other in the alley, somebody On the roof watering. You’ve been alone all day Except for 10 minutes when the Read more
Siren
A knot binds tight in a birdcage chest pulling taut like harness straps; breath falters edgily in gasps and gritty gaps struggling for free passage in staccato, high-heeled beats. Achieving lung-full, fresh, rejuvenating air: an impossibility. With the bindings, a nervousness attends surveying coldly from the sidelines; my play stutters, Read more
Mirror Talk
Be yourself if you want to kill all demons inside your head. My therapist advises. Talk to yourself in the mirror. I look at my reflection, its mouth opens, wanting to start before me. But the voice is not mine. Yes. You heard it right. I am Miryam. The pretty Read more
A Love Deserved
Sebastian points to the letter T, alone in the center of the child-sized magnetic white board. T for Tyler. T for tired. I sit criss-cross applesauce next to my four-year-old charge, who is excited and proud he’s found the letter that’s been missing from the set for days, and glance Read more
Shapeshifting
The shape of heavy tears streaking down, earthwards, journeying to find our loved ones faces, again The shape of trembling lips the very moment we recall their forevermore absence as we write the date, on this day their birthday The shape of the book on the shelf in the store, Read more
Lessons in Healing From the Aisles of Target
August 2016 I’m kneeling in the aisle like a worshipper dropping tears into the white ceramic shell of an armadillo. What else would you do on your inaugural Target run in a new town you thought you would love but don’t even like? Read more