Empathy in the Face of…
The only actions that seem to carry any value in the face of death are those that reduce the suffering of our fellow persons and those generations who are still to come. How many times have I walked roads paved over and over by the long-dead generous of spirit? Nature is an unfathomable spectacle, but…
This Digital Weight
Long before the currently mandated separation, I felt familiar with this distance. As a child of the internet age, I often recall episodes from my past that never entirely happened — at least not in the physical world. Moments of real connection and emotional substance neutered by pale colour palettes and sterile displays. Now that…
Without You
I’m lying here where your brittled form lay curled and breathing not so long ago. Your skin turned sour and your voice too soft. I held your fingers and turned away from you folding in upon yourself. Breath held and eyes swimming, open upon a ceiling of smooth meringue. A collapsing seed planted in a…
All before 9pm on a Wednesday
The wind picked up handfuls of leaves and tossed them at us. Coloured piles gathering underneath the peeling white bleachers. Luca ran from flower bush to flower bush, disappearing inside the sprawling mass of pink and bees to return with short snapped lavender and daisies. I trudged up the stairs of the grandstand, walking sideways…
Nettles
It’s not that I thought it would all be perfect. Hand in hand with you under the morton bay fig. Stepping over roots like the backs of sea monsters pushing up through the wet earth. You pressed me up against the cool bark and ran your hands along the inside of my dress. I didn’t…
My Voice (Our)
This was partially inspired by Hannah Gadsby’s latest “comedy” special. Where is my place in all of this? When I was brought up, I was taught that the merit of my position was earned purely through my existence; I owed nobody anything and I could live untethered and free to burn my own trail. I…
Pasta in Paradise
The ocean rushed up under my skirts, softening that line of pink between my skin and the cooling, grey stones. The sun was receding fast, the water still holding some lingering warmth. I pulled off the damp fabric of my dress and checked back to see Luca and his papa feeding veggie chips to a…
Half-Woman
The shame that I felt when I found that telltale pink in the seat of my underwear for the first time was overwhelming. I was the first of my friends and didn’t have an ounce of the confidence that was required to traverse that milestone solo. I had spent the previous six months trying fruitlessly…
Incest
My mother and I shared a kiss only once. It was the cold middle of my eighteenth year and I was in love. I had spent a week sleepless, my clammy fingers clutching the edge of my green floral quilt as my heart raced and I counted down the hours until I could see him…
Saint Stephen’s Green
She took me down to St. Stephen’s Green and we walked beneath the limes. Her apricot hair gained a certain Venus-like quality in the early-Autumn gale, and I wondered what it would be like to be born inside a scallop. I guess my mind was trailing off to any odd place at the time, trying…
Sweetly Unhappy People 