Washing the Dishes

When I finally insist that the vacuuming of the room needs to happen, the breaker clicks off. The roar of the machine overloaded the circuit. The room is black, only the light of the screen still lit. I push every breaker except for the right one, my rain boots on my feet grounding me to […]

My Story

My Story * by Nancy Schatz Alton Put your stories down, they say— they are too heavy and they make you angry.   You want a prettier word for make. Furthermore you want the I.   The I of your stories to say, It happened to me.   Oh life, you gave me this grief and […]

The Whole World

Whole World by Hsueh-Feng The whole world is you. Yet you keep thinking there is something else.   Yesterday I made a protective cone around my center of strength and propelled myself through the day. The memory of the last election taught me that I needed a plan. A plan like a salve: self-care so […]

Fire

Tell me, why does this one precious life feel hard? Even as my mind plays with the word hard. Is it the right word? Is hard allowed when so many have it worse? Why is my mind a trap that cycles me like a washing machine stuck in the spin cycle? Has that metaphor already […]

Oh, Peter

“Sometime you hate everything.” That’s what my friend wrote to me ten days before he died. I didn’t want to look back on our email interaction when I heard the news of his death. Because reading his typed words the first time was bad enough. I hadn’t seen Peter since I was in my early […]