Medians
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My Pawpaw’s favorite job
(I know because I asked him once)
was mowing grass on
highway medians
This is a new section of the blog I created in 2024 to hold any random creative pieces I write that don’t fall into any other category. Think of it as “Instagram Stories” for a blog. These are mostly poems and quick-draft essays written in the moment, with very little editing and likely many typos. It’s a space to play and breathe.
Two women DM about The Last of Us 2: a poem about life
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Content warning: MAJOR The Last of Us Part 2 spoilers. Like. MAJOR. DO NOT READ THIS if you haven’t already played The Last of Us 2 OR don’t plan on watching season two of the show and don’t care about spoilers. If you don’t fall into one of those two categories skip this one.
Special thanks to my friend Ashley for letting me turn our DMs into a poem. Italics are me, bold is her. Line breaks are mine, but no words were added; everything else is as it was in our DMs.
Read MorePennsylvania after Christmas
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The flurries rush toward
The window
Like tissue paper at
The end
of a taylor swift concert
“Wow!” I say, from
the back seat.
No such thing as an ending
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In my final workshop in my final MFA residency we were given a prompt to write a piece with the title “No such thing as an ending” and that the piece should come from the perspective of a place, and to chronicle the passage of at least 50 years in that one spot.
I don’t write things like this, typically. But it has been such a joy, especially after spending the last 9 years on a singular book (and the profiles I usually write (and love) take a minimum of 15 hours to complete), to be able to write something in 20 minutes, to start a piece with a vague idea (“I’ll write about Florida!”) and not know where it is going to end up.
Read MoreEstimated Delivery
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When I move
I buy shoes
And ship them to my future new address
White high top converse
Chunky Skechers
Black rain boots
They’ll all arrive before I do
Read MoreRequests folder
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This fell out of me one morning before I even got out of bed, after a fitful sleep, in response to some blocks I had to make in the midst of such a wonderful time, feeling free and accomplished at my MFA residency. But even, of course, in this little snowy escape from the world, the world still existed in my DMs. And after 36 years of this stuff, something inside me finally broke.
Read MoreMy graduate reading for my MFA in Creative Nonfiction
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Today I did my graduate reading for my MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Each graduate, during their final residency, does a graduate reading where they are introduced by their 4th semester advisor, say a few thank you words, and then read 20 minutes of writing from their creative thesis. So many of you tuned in live which I am so deeply grateful for, especially for your texts and DMs after. This is for those of you who wanted to be there live but couldn’t. Thank you for going on this journey with me. And thank you again, Lexi, for letting me tell your story.
Read MoreAn open letter to John Stamos
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This came to me on a walk in the rain, the day after I finished the last episode of the last season of a Full House rewatch. I seem to like this letter-writing prompt.
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Dear John,
I finished rewatching Full House for perhaps the 8th or 9th time in my 36 years.
Every time I watch I find something new.
Read MoreAn open letter to Neil Druckmann
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This is a piece I wrote during an MFA workshop today. I knew I wanted to write about The Last of Us somehow in this workshop, and the prompt we were given was to write a piece in the form of a letter. So I decided to write a fragmented letter to the creator of the game, Neil Druckmann. This is the draft of that letter.
Dear Neil,
You made me kill a nurse but you also inspired my largest tattoo to date. So this is a thank you letter. But not like the kind you feel obligated to write after a wedding. This is the kind you can’t not write, at least in your own head, when something changes you, brings back a part of you you thought was dead.
Read Morean intro to this space
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It’s January 2024 and I’m at my last MFA residency before I graduate, surrounded by my very first snowfall of the season. I’ve been in snow before, but this is the first time I’ve ever been in a place where there was no snow, and then wake up to snow, to everything transformed.
This kind of beautiful seasonal change doesn’t really happen where I grew up in Florida.
We do have sudden thunder storms, which can make surprising sunsets. But at the end of the day, seeing snow lightly plop off a tall pine is more enchanting than watching a hurricane slam a palm tree through your roof.
Read More