I was once told that my ego was “large and off-putting” But I wonder if what he meant was that my hips were “large and off-putting” I’m sure the tiny man in front of me felt my entire being was “large and off-putting” Because this man grew up among women who made themselves smaller He…

I stand with my dad on a patch of turnip sprouts. My aunt’s dilapidated old house is directly ahead, where just two years ago they found her dead under her old truck after roughly a month (this according to the Luzerne County Coroner) and I tell him again that he should just burn it down….

  The ending is not new, yet still I hesitate to face the remains of time resurfacing as I clean out closed drawers, sort through sealed attic boxes.   Framed photographs, love notes, cards of congratulations—the ephemera that summons nostalgia unwanted, of facing cancer in our twenties, of climbing the Rockies, of August walks for ice cream,…

Those old things crammed in corners shouted their accusations;   pant legs dangled on hangers, sweaters swallowed shelves, self-righteous   in their refusal to fit, obstinate in not giving an inch or half:   black and white capris checkered like a raceway flag   white no-iron Oxford button-ups Catholic school-girl stiff and prim   tees…

  I resent it each time I hear someone called a Douchebag, some scum, some insufferable lowlife, some man for whom the worst insult is something used only by women, something done in secret something women thought they had to do to make themselves clean for men as though they were dirty before or after…

The spectrum of truth unbinds perceptions  If you listen carefully, there is verity  under every lie that salts our wounds  Like the breaker- that seasons beaches of grit and unease  contains real kelp of solid green Unpatterned, unbidden our weaknesses sing tales of truth These seahorses of our caged soul anemones,  that we tame  in…

  Do you remember the day we entered our new home? The stark, empty spaces weren’t really empty, were they? They were filled—every corner and crevice, with an air of hope, anticipation and yes, with love.   The bare walls picked up those naughty giggles, multiplied them manifold and threw them back at us. I…

  We fell in love because of that lift home, a pirated Strokes album playing, me glancing at your lipring between turns. We’d already grounded ourselves on music floes:   me a lovechild of Band of Horses and Florence, you a mashup of Bloodhound Gang and Amanda Palmer.   You taught my body how to…

  Find what turns your soul into a hummingbird. Your heart into a nest.   Chase the great heart of the world. Run vibrantly to the point where ascension begins.   Don’t trust anyone who feels endangered in the reflection of your radiant safety. You are a rose protect your own petals. Use your marvelous…