So. Here I am again. Blah blah blah, life gets in the way. I am a bad landlord. I am a bad tenant. I am a bad friend. But I am writing. I am happy. And I am alive. 

This weekend, my uncle married his partner in an exquisitely moving ceremony… Read full post »

Thomas, you're a swell guy with a cute photo and some great suggestions, but I consider myself lucky to even finish a piece of writing every week, much less increase my readership beyond the loyal few who trust me enough to slog through dross and gold alike. Maybe I'll find… Read full post »

Holy crap, it's been a while. My job ate my life, but that's no excuse. More than anything, I've been so charmed by the emergence of spring (and the corresponding mood changes in my crazy head) that none of my current depressive myth-reinvention projects seemed like much fun to work on.… Read full post »

This post is a little late,  but still in time for Easter; I spent all afternoon slaving over a hot laptop for you, so I hope you're still hungry.

I didn't want to go the obvious Jesus-y route with the post today, especially since there'll be enough of that… Read full post »

“It starts out like a game, right? Before we go to bed, we agree on a place, or something we like to do, or a word. Then when we wake up in the morning, you tell me your dream, and then I tell you mine. And we see if we… Read full post »

To begin with, a disclaimer: I love Mrs. Michaels's writing. I am an unabashed and dorky fan. 

 Many writers here on the OS (myself included) delve into material that uncovers past wounds, hurts, embarrassing personal details, or all of the above. Here's the thing: the passion, the… Read full post »

Warning: Fluff post. Fun mostly, a little serious maybe. For more substantive writing, visit my other posts. No, wait, stay! Oh hell...

UPDATE 3/7: New blog post here.

Still here? OK.

I only had time for seven, and thirteen is bad luck. With apologies to Wallace Stevens. 

COCKROACH… Read full post »

I have writer's block. Possibly from eating too much writer's cheese. So in response I've resorted to all my bad old habits (napping too much, drinking a little, joking about the problem, stupefying myself with food, reading my old writing and mourning the death of my abilities, making a huge fucking… Read full post »

As I work on the stand-up routine that will lead to the addictions that cause  my karmically appropriate death (right now, I'm banking on "getting really fat, then being crushed by the vending machine I was tipping in order to rescue a stuck bag of TGIFridays Bacon and Cheese Potato Skin… Read full post »

For more background, see Part 1 

"BLESS THAT"

“Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, thank you for the food that’s been prepared for our use, please bless it to strengthen and nourish our bodies and do us the good that we need, bless that we’ll go about our travels… Read full post »

I spend a lot of time on my feet. I am, for a dancer, clumsy.  I also stay up too late after drinking too much red wine, which is when the obsessive inventory of bruises, scars, and potential varicose veins begins. I turned 30 last year; my mother turned sixty. And… Read full post »

Here's my version of the 5 word exercise from my current muse, red_sea_rose. The challenge ? To write a poem using five assigned words. This week: Sing, Apple, Tin, Forty, Matchstick. 

MATCH GIRL

This time of night, who’s buying matches? No one

Who has… Read full post »

Sunday afternoon. Time for a quick poem before I try cutting my own hair. Again. Wish me luck. A balloon was caught in the power lines as I drove home last night, its wilted siblings dangling beneath it like they know it's February. Wonder what happened to the kid holding them.… Read full post »

 Written after witnessing a terrifying scene at a public park. Please to enjoy.  

__________

FAMILY REUNION

i’m gonna eat your FACE

(isn’t he just the living end

the spitting image

the cutest thing)

come back here, you’re so CUTE

RRRRRRRRRRRR

i&r… Read full post »

HOW IT ENDS, AND WHY

Become a cave person. Retreat.

Marshal your resources.

Reacquaint yourself with anger; become

a stranger to reason.

Sketch attitudes of ochre desperation

on your damp cave walls.

Fantasize. 

 … Read full post »

This blog is a challenge to myself. After nearly twenty years of writing, I'm putting this stuff out where it can do what it was meant to do: be read. Not in the sense that any of this deserves publication more than anything else out there, but in the sense that… Read full post »

FIRST AWAKE

To be first awake must be held so dearly

As not to be wasted.  Examining

You now, my nerves peeled raw and quivering

Still from last night’s exertions, very nearly

Unhinges me.  Propped up on bent elbows

I contemplate your… Read full post »