Poem: So This Is Hunger

so, this must be hunger because after a length of time it became a giddy default after the pain of a clenching stomach migrated to a light-headed mind to mistake emptiness and famine for light and nirvana when it was really just flesh eating flesh. so, this must be hunger because naming a thing gave …

Tumbling Along

When one spends too much time horizontally, concepts of "up" and "down" shift. After a certain point, I decided that if I was going to have my feet level with my head 90% of the time, better to do some of that outdoors. That's how I ended up laying in an empty soccer field for …

BAPTIZO! (Testimony)

It's been nearly two decades in the making, but I finally got baptized this Sunday. I was given five minutes to testify how Jesus has worked in my life. Here's what I said: My name is Gloria. I stand here to proclaim what God has done in my life, and to dedicate myself to Christ. …

Dreams of July

God has been preparing me for my baptism in an unexpected series of ways. Two weeks prior to it, I had three consecutive nights of dreaming. As someone who can hardly remember a single dream from my own life, this is highly rare and unlikely. Less than two weeks prior, I accessed a profound anger …

Sandra

I've tapped into a huge reserve of anger regarding my past, and I can't help but to feel a bit scared. Not because it's unfamiliar, but because I recognize it as a part of me. A part of me which remains untamed, wild, uncontrollable. She wants to throw some tantrums, scream, punch a wall. To …

Hardly Human

When I started journaling in second grade, it was a kind of breakthrough. I was someone who thought and thought for hours on end, but I didn't see any of those thoughts and feelings as valid. Nothing about me was valid, so I hardly acknowledged myself as human. I was so terrible at articulating my …

Prison Break

I've been spending a lot of my free time excavating my past. We teach our children that certain things are not allowed in society, because of laws and consequences. In my childish mind, I divided people into simple categories, like civilian, police, angel, and villain, and I thought that everything in the world worked out …

Kisses of an Enemy

Fall 2017 When I saw them speak to the class for the first time, my heart softened, and I heard God tell me to get closer, and to show them the type of love I would to a close friend. It would be easy enough, I thought. They seemed sociable, gentle. We had some things …

Summer Rain

In Act 3, Lear is turned out of his own daughter's castle. Robbed of his dignity, and the most base of comforts, he descends into madness in the storm of the night. Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! He screams at the heavens in powerless defiance. Boston, Western Suburbs. July 2018 AD. The …

Drawing the Burden

Nobody gets an A in drawing. We're started off at a C, and work our way down or up. It's not meant to be an easy class. One would have been quite pleased with a B. I'm not proud of myself because I got a perfect A. And this isn't humble bragging -- the credit …