Journal
Articles
The green gold grassy hills
I’d missed her fiftieth birthday party the year before due to the usual restrictions of time and money. But as I stood at the window scrubbing vegetables, I wondered what had been so important that I hadn’t been able to make an exception for someone to whom a year could be a lifetime. Under-eights soccer game? Kids’ sleepover? But my partner could have done that on their own, couldn’t they?
Lost decade
We were given a list of verified addresses that we could pick from: Leonardo DiCaprio, Quentin Tarantino, Taylor Swift. I began my tours at Las Palmas hotel, where Richard Gere climbs the fire escape in Pretty Woman. Then I drove up Highland, past the church where Sister Act was filmed, and into the hills. The passengers were sunscreened and hopeful, leaning to the windows. My passengers, I reminded myself. I hadn’t even seen Pretty Woman then.
Apocalypse, then?
Writing took almost everything from me. Most afternoons, I’d arrive home from teaching classrooms of uninterested students, have a little Henry time, defrost a ready-to-eat supermarket meal, open a bottle of shiraz and write until midnight. Most weekends, I’d start writing once the hangover wore off, break for lunch, and then write again until dinner. It wasn’t just punishing on my physical health, it ruined my relationships, most recently with Greg, who said I’d die miserable and alone if I maintained my grim routine. And for what? The occasional acceptance from an obscure journal read by twelve other short-story writers?
In the Dollhouse
I don’t remember my Barbies, but Mother once told me I had twist-popped their limbs off. I do recall this one doll...
Cinema
I cry in the cinema Or not cry So hard that my head aches with the holding back Not in the film When...
Pentax ME Super
History is a heavy handful and a sore neck, but it is safer than memory.
The emperor’s twin
In the absence of gods, must we choose monsters? You can never really know the difference, or see under. These creatures...
Threshold
What is the voice of one who has died if no one listened to what remained unspoken? It no longer matters.
Mildew on the whiteness of Hölderlin
Mildew on the whiteness of Hölderlin’s shoulders, his phantom limb reaching towards an ideal he is sure he’ll reach. When the snow...
Things come together
After a photo by Annie Leibovitz of Johnny Cash with his grandson Joseph, Rosanne Cash and June Carter Cash,...
Exeunt
The mirage of beer before their eyes. Barney wipes his feet upon the mat unaccustomed to such luxuries.
A less artificial future
Humans have been making automatons since the time of the Ancient Greeks. Disruption due to technology is nothing new. We need to think critically about this fourth industrial revolution, remembering the lessons of the past. The rapid scientific discoveries, exponential technological advances and widescale job losses have all been seen before.
