Tuesday, June 19, 2018
7:20am
5 minutes
A quote by Eleanor Roosevelt

Courage and integrity are the two words that I want to leave you with today. Courage – because you’ll need it. Because the world is a dark and dangerous place. Because the dark and the dangerous need courageous warriors like yourselves to bring something new, something bright, something only you can bring. Dear graduates, integrity has come to mean so much to me over the years. I believe it’s how I’ve gotten where I’ve gotten today, standing here, giving this very speech. Integrity is treating everyone you meet with respect. Not “how you want to be treated” because not everyone wants to be treated like you do. That adage doesn’t apply any longer. Integrity is the only thing that is going to make this world a better place. So go in courage! Go in integrity! Take it from me! I’m almost one hundred!

Saturday June 16, 2018
3:02pm
5 minutes
The Politician
H.L. Mencken

I’ve got nothing to say about presidency or anything right now. I feel like death and I don’t want to be writing and the screen hurts my eyes and I wish I could dictate or something but I don’t know how to do that. Shit. I can’t believe that there’s this now, right before leaving, right before flying, again. Being sick a flying is nasty. I hate it. I hate that I had to do it in the winter and I hate that I have to do it again. I’ve got nothing to say about a presidency besides I can’t bear to read the news.

Friday June 15, 2018
5:20pm
5 minutes
What We Lost
Brenda Peynado

My mother lost her teeth when she was forty. She woke up one morning and they were on her pillow. All of them. Even her molars.

When she went to the dentist Dr. Hendricks said that she’d never seen anything like it.

“Perhaps it’s hormonal, Mary. Have you checked your hormones?”

“My hormones are fine, thanks.” My mother said.

I know becuase I was there. Well, almost. I was in the waiting room. See, my mother’s teeth fell out the same month I got mono. She dragged me around to all her appointments and I read comic books in the waiting rooms.

“What’s up with you, Monika?” Dr. Burns, our family doctor said.

“I have mono, remember?” He’d diagnosed me three weeeks before.

“Of course, of course, my mistake. I see a lot of young people, Monika, and it can be hard to keep everyone straight.”

My mother rolled her eyes as though there was no reason to be discussing anything other than her gummy mouth. Or maybe she was also irritated that Dr. Burns, who delivered both me and my brother, had forgotten about my mono. Sometimes it’s hard to tell with her.

Wednesday June 13, 2018
7:13am
5 minutes
From a quote by James Baldwin

During the meteor showers in August, my family and I would lie on blankets on the small hill beside the cottage in the woods. It would be past my bedtime, and the glee of staying up late would create effervescent excitement in my belly. My sister Layah and I would swap tactics to catching the most shooting stars, “Squint your eyes and then you can see farer!” “There are more over there! Just look over there!” “You take the right side of the sky and I’ll take the left and when we see one, point and say, ‘There!’”

Monday June 11, 2018
11:19pm
5 minutes
Suburban Bitch Curse
Akhim Yussef Cabey

I’m never sure what you mean when you talk about climbing up into the loft, I’m never sure if you’re talking about here or at the farm or at Aunt Bev’s place. I’m sorry. I wish I knew. I’m glad you’re sleeping. I don’t know what they’ve given you today, this whole week really, but I’m so glad you’re finally sleeping. It was the worst when you first got here and you couldn’t rest. “Wired”, was how you described it and it’s how you looked. “Wired.” Poor soul. Did I tell you that Gemma called again? You really might want to call her back, Mike. It’s the fourth time she’s called this week and I’m guessing you aren’t texting or emailing either. You should’ve heard her voice. She sounded awful.

Saturday June 9, 2018
11:44pm
5 minutes
Victory
Charlotte D. Staelin

If I got dismissed from my job I would lie and tell you I just didn’t want to work there anymore. I won’t tell you it was because I got caught stealing office supplies. You will think I’m better than I am for finally leaving a bad paying job. I will be both a liar and a thief. And it will be the best thing to happen to me. I need proof of my bad behaviour in the form of embarrassment. Maybe I want to be tortured by shame. Maybe I need it. Not having money is not a good place to be (morally) if you’re a kleptomaniac. It really makes you want to put on the tv and forget.
I wouldn’t tell you because you won’t understand that I would have celebrated my lack of reckoning. I might not ever have changed.

Saturday May 26, 2018
11:33pm
5 minutes
From a text

He tells me he wants to lay in my light
As if mine is the laying kind
As if it might keep him safe
Or give him the good dreams

I can’t tell where he can and cannot lay
But I don’t know why he wants mine in the first place
When I tell the others what he said
one of them tells me he’s been saying things to them too

One of them tells me he’s trying to stay in as many of our good graces as possible
But I don’t know if he’s saying this to them in the same way
I don’t know if anyone says something about laying in the light of someone else unless it’s the kind of light you could really see yourself laying in.

People who tell you that you’re not the only one to receive a sturdy compliment are the same people who wish that compliment was said to them
They’re the ones trying to dim the light so there’s less to lay in