Years ago, I had an ultra bigoted friend. It didn’t matter what kind of different you were she didn’t like you. In between going to mass and claiming to be a Christian, she was mean, rarely checked her thoughts before she spoke, was the friend who “kept it real” and then whimpered in protest if …
Dark Side of the Moon
My project was on the Moon. You told me, “You should do nursing.” I hate nursing and blood and shots and you know that. Every day, I scour magazines for pictures and carefully cut, recut and paste. I copy images onto tracing paper when I can’t cut from books and I plan painstakingly how the …
Rotten Eggs?
At first sight, there is nothing – nothing, however small-- which makes one think “I should eat that thing” when faced with the “Thousand Year Old Egg,” an ancient Ming delicacy which, to Western eyes, looks slimy, rotten and foreboding. From its putrefied center --a creamy, oozing grey where once a yellow yolk resided to …
Release Valve
As a kid, I remember a household of tyrannosaurus yells. Everything led to a pointless high drama, and I’d finally give into the irony and do something to make it humorous and worse. All my life I’ve been confused by people who get themselves out on a limb and then wonder why they are stuck. …
Great Expectations
In the fall of 1969, my parents decided to run away from home, taking our family to Ireland. Ostensibly, my mom wanted us away from the drugs epidemic in the San Francisco Bay Area while my dad was ready to launch his writing career. In preparation, we got passports, took swimming lessons and bought clothes …
Stick Figures
Stick FiguresThis is a short piece I wrote which now appears at Wordgang.It's about people who call themselves names and how I feel about it.You can find other wonderful pieces at Wordgang including one of my favorites, "Rest" by Carolyn Studer.