scribblings

december 16

the writing

colder and darker 
these days conspire, but stew—
welcomes me home

~

Last Christmas, Ben stole a bottle of his father’s brandy. He walked three miles, through the snow, to a party hosted by a classmate he hated, just to see the boy he liked. This Christmas, Ben has a black eye and a split lip, but that same boy just kissed him under the mistletoe.

~

ivy grows around 
her face, set in stone; i leave 
the cemetery

~

Dale curled up on the floor, weeping and mumbling the same thing over and over.
“He is trapped in memory,” Carmen said, “Repeating all of his worst moments.”
She looked so proud of herself; Elise edged away, a pit in her stomach. 
This did not go unnoticed: “Don’t worry, dear girl. As long as you follow the rules, you’ll be just fine.”

the reading

Poem: “ars poetica of partridges & palestine” by Mandy Shunnarah

“[…] I’m looking for metaphors on Wikipedia again. It’s easy 
to write poems about birds with so many species of partridges.
National Geographic says 43 of those species are decreasing
in population; something Palestinians know all too well.
People like poems about birds more than they like poems 
about Palestine, & factual Palestine & her endangered people.
We just won’t go extinct quickly enough. But I digress. […]”

Short Story: “The Tallest Poppy” by Chloe Gong (from The Gathering Dark)

“I begin to imagine the house communicating with me directly in a push and pull: It wants me out desperately; it wants me to stay just as badly. Hurt me, scratch me, hurl terrible words that mark my skin; then embrace me, claim me, demand that I take it for my own and never leave it. 
I wander around the living room, hands trailing across the cabinet. Even though Mrs. Fausse cleaned this morning, I cut five lines through the thin layer of dust that has gathered on the surface. I am not scared by a mere house. I have no interest in admitting defeat and fleeing. Once I finish the job, I’ll walk away with my head high. Besides, it’s not like I’m going anywhere until I’ve taken my last pay check. I need that plane ticket.”