Been a year now without you, without having those seemingly endless conversations and rants, without savoring your delectable cuisine, without you complimenting me, my outfits, my hair, and everything, everything. Yet none of those 365 or less days passed by without me reminiscing about you. The night you carved a pathway for yourself, to embark […]
Continue Reading
The year cancer floods my grandfather’s lungs I unspool myself on the dinner table and let my body decay in the open air I wring my hands in blood write his name glowing sangria on my skin take it all in, fist-first, fire-spitting-hair-flaming-first Sinew by sinew I watch myself rot and decompose into wooden earth […]
Continue Reading
Recently, I had to write a speech for a competition at school on any topic, and I picked my grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s. I feel like this topic is important to hear, not only so that you have an insight into the disease but so that you can also appreciate your grandparents more. My grandma […]
Continue Reading
Her chair was placed by the window so she could face the outside though there was nothing much to see but the yard, a tree, an empty driveway. Her flower gardening days were long past, so nothing drew her out there except her chair on the front porch where she sat when the weather was […]
Continue Reading
Your mother is not always the person who brought you into this world. Maybe she adopted you a few years in, or maybe she married your father after you were born. A mother is not defined as who gave birth to you but rather who has nurtured you like a parent should since the moment she […]
Continue Reading
The first rain of March dripped down the grey city like sticky tangerine juice. This is a sign— she should be getting better. But instead, we perch around her drinking chair and watch her shrink and compress into a dried bouquet of lavender and yellow grass and one lonely Christmas rose. She’s supposed to be […]
Continue Reading
Charles wasn’t meant to take the files on Mrs. Conway’s insurance claim out of the office, but he did it anyway. He tucked them into his briefcase and kept an eye on their manila edge as he sucked at a chocolate malt in that drugstore down on 49th. He was supposed to catch the 5:40, […]
Continue Reading
I pace the aging dock, its wood groaning in the shallow water. My summer- browned legs quiver at the thought of walking the plank. I cannot see the joy in swimming in this, where beneath the surface dart tiny fish, slimy reeds that will seize my ankles and toes. I can see, though, how her […]
Continue Reading
She stored buttons in a drawer of her Singer Sewing Machine— a collection of varied sizes and colors— rose and ivory and pale green or black with ornamental designs, sometimes bits of material or thread still clinging to the back. While I sat cross-legged at the treadle, I dug my fingers into the treasure mound […]
Continue Reading