Once, Young Lovers Bore Our Names
Woman, I have borne the salt of your trauma in my mouth until my tongue turned crystal. I have butterflied my ribs to open space to hold your sorrows. I have worn the cartilage of every joint down to a whisper, carrying your pain across my back. Woman, I have lashed my body to your … Continue reading Once, Young Lovers Bore Our Names
Kol Nidre Moments Away
On Custom Kol Nidre (Aramaic, kol nidhrē, “All vows”) is the opening prayer service of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for the Jewish people. We begin our annual ritual of transformation by pleading for the cancellation of all vows which we failed to fulfill in the previous year. Yom Kippur observance includes abstention from … Continue reading Kol Nidre Moments Away
Please Pardon Our Appearance While I’m Lost in the Sauce
Dearest blog friends and followers, Please excuse me for the radio silence. My love life, that subject which comprises two-thirds of the content of this strange blog, is metastasizing beyond my processing ability. Those lovely, clean personal essays with which I’ve been proud to populate this site, the likes of My Queen is Not Okay … Continue reading Please Pardon Our Appearance While I’m Lost in the Sauce
I Let Him Take Me Deep into the Woods
Ten months since we’ve met. Seven dates. Uncountable hours on the phone. And yet this morning feels like the great unknown. When we first met, he drove two hours north just to stroll around the block a couple times with me and a coffee. Later, he would tell me, of that date, “I remember you … Continue reading I Let Him Take Me Deep into the Woods
The “We Had Sex” Text
There it is, smushed up between “Good morning” and “I love you”. “Natalia and I hooked up.” My first thought: Wait, aren’t you staying at your parents’ house? Second thought: You had sex at your parents house? For the first time? Without me? Third thought: Crap, if this little kid catches me texting she’ll snitch … Continue reading The “We Had Sex” Text
Baby on the Big Swing
Water’s pooling everywhere. A week of summer rain: tomato vines have doubled length and the wood chips are bursting into mushroom. He and I become one pendulum, sweating into one another’s clothes. His sixteen pounds, all belly, brain and bone, lift away from my chest at each inflection. Hot, the tiny head rolls back and … Continue reading Baby on the Big Swing
Am I a Tweeter? A Twitter? A Twit?
I thought I was a masochist, but I just joined Twitter, and I’m starting to rethink. Follow me here. Really, please. I’m not too proud to beg. (Last week I was too proud to beg. A week on Twitter will knock the pride right out of you.) Twittering feels like giving an open-access blowjob to … Continue reading Am I a Tweeter? A Twitter? A Twit?
The Caregiver Threat
“Ugh,” Mari mutters at the phone, glowing face-up on the table. “I click on one ad, one time, and now all I get are these ads…” I glance over at her screen. In comic-bookish CGI, set in a bedroom, a chiselly man leans a speech-bubble into the face of an Attractive Young Woman. “The boys … Continue reading The Caregiver Threat
Two Decades in Coming-Out Stories
1998: Marisol at 7 From the back of her mother’s minivan, she makes her announcement: “When I grow up, my husband’s gonna take my last name.” The words must hit her mother like a slap. The 25-year-old woman in the driver’s seat knows what it means to fear for her children. She has known that … Continue reading Two Decades in Coming-Out Stories
And yet —
And yet — a new poem by Melita White about control, power and privilege. And yet —
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