The importance of proper diagnosis
The medic asks me about symptoms after shining a light in my eyes, and having me track his finger with my pupil. Asks me if I’ve been dizzy, I am. Asks me if I’ve had a headache, I have. Asks me...
“you should write about it,” i thought stupidly
I. writing when you can’t look at yourself in the broken glass on your kitchen floor, when you sweep it up while looking at the bugs crawling out of the cracks in your ceiling, when you bring the broom...
Their kind of pretty
Beautiful? Yes, I know I am. Though, it took me years to take such compliments gracefully. Not because I don’t see my own beauty; my own worth. I do. I don’t know that a person can like themselves and...
Dream mother
I had a dream that you were proud of me. You walked next to me and smiled and squeezed my hand, and that’s how I knew it was a dream. I woke up hungry. I’m glad my brain can...
Dish towels
The first lesson you taught me was how to fold the dish towels: First in half then one more half, and if I mess it up again, you’ll put your head in the oven and kill yourself because you just...
Rage triptych
(Because three is, geometrically speaking, the most stable structure.) 1. An acquaintance once told me — at a Fourth of July parade, no less — that according to Barb (a.k.a.: The Word Around Town), I hadn’t...
The children
I used to hoard apples until they were rotten. Green ones, not red. They would stay in the closet until I could no longer eat them, eat anything. I couldn’t stomach what happened. The cupboard full of spiders, shards...
Upon watching [place of abuse] burn to the ground
In another dream, in a body not touched by their hands, I bang on the door, scream that there is a fire. But that is not this dream. In this dream, I watch from across the street. When flames cross the threshold, I...
Recommended Reading
The acknowledgement
I’m trying to be gentle with myself, but what if I never believe my body when it tells me what happened?
Have the time of your life!*
*Common side effects may include but are not limited to: harassment, stalking, getting drugged, passing out in...
To the fathers who do not abuse their daughters
On my street I am witness to the young men who carry the pink-flowered backpacks of little girls, who...
