After 10 pm the house quiets down. My father lays in his bed, sometimes twitching, sometimes sleeping, sometimes both. The anti-bed sore air mattress huffs and puffs beneath him. Its symphony is punctuated by the sound of my mother’s phone. She is playing Candy Crush, or Wordscapes, or Online Poker on one of her three … Continue reading the sound and the fury
love letter for my dad’s 74th year
2018 has been hard. historically, the lenten season is not my best time of year. perhaps this is a holdover from catholicism-- for years fasting hid the ways i punished myself for my excess, most readily understood, though not exclusively, through my fatness. but winter is its own kind of denial: short days punctuated by … Continue reading love letter for my dad’s 74th year
receiving memory
in the early spring kb and i get a bee in our bonnet and can’t wait to start cleaning out the basement. we live in an old house with a fine film of dirt across everything, the kind that you can’t remove except with a sander. the hardwood peels up, some spots are rubbed raw. … Continue reading receiving memory
in the wake
i was talking to my father recently and he asked me when i was going to finish my Ph.D. of course i finished it almost two years ago now; he came to my dissertation defense, cried when my committee announced me as "doctor," held me and congratulated me after. on my graduation day he sat in … Continue reading in the wake
our endless numbered days
so far the worst thing about my cat dying is that he's stayed dead. i was not prepared for death's permanence.
axiom
you are more than your writing
blessings
on the first day of the fall term, a young WoC came up to me after class and told me she wanted to be like me, she'd never had a WoC professor before, and she liked that i told the students to call me Dr. or Prof. because i earned my degree. she said she … Continue reading blessings
