Every spring the Bradford pear explodes in celebration of the season, raining white petals like confetti. Walking the greenway, seeing the confetti in the mud, this year’s celebration feels a little melancholy, like a birthday party no one came to. [][][] To slow the creeping infection of COVID-19, we’ve been asked to keep to ourselves, a kind of radical version of my own natural inclinations. Stay in your house as much as possible, and if…
It’s Saturday, March 14. I’m having a normal day. Coffee. Scrolling through posts on my phone — first in one app, then another, then again in the first app as if I hadn’t just done that very thing minutes before. It is the first normal day after so many not normal days that it feels decadent, like chocolate ganache in the form of minutes. The hours stretch out before me as if to tease me,…
Without any prompting, ask your child these questions and write down EXACTLY what they say. Holden, 8 years old: 1. What is something mom always says to you? Sweetie bear. 2. What makes mom happy? When I do my homework really fast. 3. What makes mom sad? When I say cuss words. Or when I call her stupid. 4. How does your mom make you laugh? You give me the tickle tackle. 5. What was…
Internet, I hope you can help a sister out on this one. Richard received this piece of art that belonged to his Aunt Amanda after her death several years ago. He doesn’t know where it came from or who made it; he just selected it because he liked how it looks. There’s no identifying information on the back, and Richard’s mom has even asked a close friend of Amanda’s to see if she knew more…
• Perspective, if you look at it the right way. • A three-inch white hair that grows out of your temple overnight. Overnight. • Ideas, so many ideas, that will burn in the back of your head for days, weeks, months, years, waiting for you to feed the dog and clear your desk and load the last dish and answer the last email and sing the last bedtime song and fold the last towel until you…
I’m working on art and layout for Coffin Bell TWO, an anthology of dark literature. My friend and CB EIC Tamara asked if I could put together a book trailer. I had no idea how or what to do, so I said, “Let me try!” Behold! I actually really like how it turned out. It’s a love letter to art, writing, books, strangeness, and the vehicle that can pull all of those things together: graphic…
It occurred to me this afternoon that, as of this month, I’ve been back in Nashville for seven years. That’s just six months shy of my time in Memphis. I still get pangs of homesickness for Memphis, and the friends I left there. I suspect I always will. Things have changed so much in my life since arriving in 2012. It hasn’t been easy, but it’s been absolutely for the best. I’m so grateful. My…
I could write a million words (and probably will) on what it’s like to parent this child, but I believe the essence of everything I could ever say is captured in this image.
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