I'm already behind. I'm doing this thing called Think Kit. It's a month of writing prompts to jump start your blog, and a local company called Small Box curates it. I did the first prompt, but dropped the ball yesterday when I received this: What did you change your mind about this year? Was it a big deal – the … Continue reading Flip the script: vegan fish
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Twenty Fourteen was a huge year for me. Even so, "the year 2014" sounds like the setting for a sci-fi story, and some of the events still feel as surreal as an alien invasion. I could easily write 5,000 words about everything that happened, but here's the Reader's Digest version. 1. I graduated It happened May 3, 2014, … Continue reading A Thousand Words
what's a simile for a brick? _____(as hard as a... _____as heavy as a... _____as red as a...) you build descriptions with bricks, not for them, bricks sit, indifferent— at home the shower water turns black at my feet, while obsidian tornadoes twist from nostril tombs, dropping detritus from my mucus membrane; sell the grime … Continue reading Before lunch we deconstruct a chimney questioning…
Poet Billy Collins looked at me, across the book signing table, and said, “How about: Go fuck yourself?” The former United States poet laureate stared through his round glasses, face stone serious expression. Quite literally, I was asking for it. Billy Collins read Saturday, Nov. 8, at Central Library as a part of Vonnegut Fest … Continue reading Why Billy Collins told me to eff off
I've come to talk to you again. North Carolina Pastor Alan Martin is reaching out to poor souls—that is, if they’re handing him a bowl of spaghetti. In September, he bought an Olive Garden never ending pasta pass for $100. Only 1,000 people total bought the pasta pass, and any one of them could break … Continue reading Hello pasta my old friend…
When the tour guide said Emily Dickinson’s bedroom was under construction and therefore off limits, I felt so relieved. This great dread dissipated like vapor, and I enjoyed the rest of the 90-minute tour much more than the first portion. But I couldn’t explain it: Why didn’t I want her room, where the magic happened, … Continue reading Places that haunt me
“We have too much light to see the night sky in Indiana,” the question-raiser started. About two hours after Neil deGrasse Tyson’s lecture at the University of Indianapolis began, Tyson opened up the floor for questions. “So I was wondering how you see stars in New York?” “Oh,” said the director of the Hayden Planetarium … Continue reading This Just In: Neil deGrasse Tyson at UIndy
Ici— _____where you are meant to sink _____far below bumbling bustles of bees _____bumping into every body, which drone _____wins this day's drip of honey, chérie? dans la fleuve, _____filling in around, covering you _____busy bourgeoisie, leave him alone— _____he feels the weight of stones, sinking, _____which is only a waterlogged coat en bas, _____the … Continue reading Boudu [before being] Sauvé des Eaux
The picture I wish I took Bright, floral frescoes decorated the walls of the Mexican restaurant and the margarita-laden tables, too. Mariachi music emoted over the speakers. I stepped in with my fiancé in tow, and saw my guest, Zak Mitiche, already sitting in the booth. His loose, black prayer robe looked somewhat out of … Continue reading Zak Mitiche: American, Muslim
The fellowship hall at my grandparents’ church is like most others, too bright walls, rectangular fluorescent lights, carpet with disorienting patterns designed to hide spills and stains. I unknowingly sit down next to the pastor, and he asked for my connection—who I am, why I deserve to be at Jim and Hazel Figy’s 65th anniversary … Continue reading For grandma and grandpa Figy on their anniversary
James Figy 