At what age do normal, not-traumatized adults stop having nightmares about missing the school bus? Because I’m twenty-four years old and seven years out from riding that yellow child-toting vehicle and it’s still one of my most recurring dream experiences.
Continue reading “The Nightmare Before School”
Sunday evening porch-sitting
revitalizes my soul.
All the better if it rains,
to cleanse the past week’s worries
and water the seeds for this week.
The breeze twirls the steam from my hot tea
like a ballerina in a music box.
New shoes, new shirt, new backpack
We were back on the block again at 7:45AM,
Leaving Spongebob playing on the living room TV
While we waited outside for the bus and Mom watched us from the front door. Continue reading “How we Used to Wait”
I don’t check my mail very often. In fact, the only reason I had even checked my mail that early spring day was because I was expecting a letter from the bank with my new debit card. I had lost mine a few weeks ago at a bar in Portland, along with the bracelet I was wearing and the chapstick I had in those pesky shallow romper pockets. The debit card and chapstick I could replace, inconvenient as it was, but the bracelet I was more upset about. It was a beaded one from my days in Athens; my old friend bought it for me at a flea market, from one of those vendors that doesn’t sell vintage materials but cheap accessories like flashy purses and plastic rings. She hadn’t spent more than seven dollars on it, and I watched her buy it and hand it to me, but it had sort of worn a comfortable patch of my wrist for a couple years and came to feel like a part of me.
Slanted Spines 