Then Dad started to miss birthdays and funerals and anniversaries. When our cat, Sasha, and our turtle, Jamba Juice, died, Mom dug up the graves. My brother and I prayed for Sasha and Jamba Juice. Dad was still inside, playing video games.
All by Drunk Monkeys
My Aunt Sharon gave me a whole shelf-worth of conduct guides when I turned ten. She didn’t call them that, of course. And unlike Victorian conduct guides, none of them said my ovaries would shrivel if I read too much (although, my ovaries did eventually shrivel, or more accurately, they exploded, but that was years down the road yet. At 13 my ovaries were still intact, as far as I knew).
So that the jumbo popcorn in the movie
theater scene must be tempered with
a discussion about extra butter, a shaming
and a shushing, crushing the soft white
fluffiness of a kernel sprung brilliantly
into a flat bug on the floor. A joy-kill.
A small red circular shape on the lower left-hand corner of the canvas, a prize that looks like a rose. The painting instructs all of our ghosts, if you follow my madness, my paths, you too, can caress these petals, smell a sweetness, like a little girl’s smile, fall asleep under a dollhouse.
“I’d like to take a look at that book.” He wraps his hand around the nape of her neck, and they lock unblinking eyes like children in a staring contest. When she is the first to look away, Ted says, “Why don’t I give you a ride home.”
& it was the end of the world as we knew it & I felt
kind of shitty if I’m being honest here & I was pissed
my dad died of cancer the same week Kurt Cobain
killed our generation off with selfish shots of bourbon &
gunfire
When I would cry as an infant, my parents dangled me upside down until I stopped crying and fell asleep like a bat. Now, I have to spend nine hours a day asleep in a headstand. My pool’s inflatable. My neighbors are all old men. My role model growing up was Ivan from Brothers Karamazov.
Two sleepy people, twisted, on the rebound. Tonight, is there any chance? Disco inferno, boom boom, tempted. Rum and coke, tequila, blurred lines. Looking for the perfect beat, time, waiting for the miracle. The waiting.
To be sure, there’s a lot about the script for Delirious that I love. The soap opera characters and situations in particular are clever subversions of the genre, and anyone watching this movie on some level at least understands how soaps work. The movie takes your understanding and runs with it to some surprising and often surreal places. The movie operates on soap opera logic, but also works with dream logic, and it’s easy to see why Gable is more often than not way in over his head.
Because one morning the troubled woman seemed calmer, and I thought I might have a chance to get some information, build some rapport.
Because she asked me if I had any children and I responded an immediate “yes”.
Because then she suddenly shook her arms at me, and yelled “your children will die, die, die.”
What cruel hand plopped you down
in a festering lake of blood
to plod incessantly behind the dead tree,
so near the cliff face?
How does it feel to have a life worth 11k runes?
Emily acted as guide, her arm around Nathan’s, until they sat opposite each other. Her eyes scanned the menu lazily, already knowing she would get the flauta plate and as many free margaritas as they’d serve her. Nathan’s eyes flickered up to her face then back down to his phone, fingers never ceasing the algorithm-perpetuated doom scroll.
For the 104 episodes before “Mindy Lahiri Is a White Man”, Mindy is established as a strong independent doctor who just happens to be a single mom. “…White Man” comes late in Season 5, just after some other mind-bending episodes. With only a dozen episodes after it, many shows would have been jumping the shark. As the episode starts loading, I realize that we are nearing the end of the run. And I’m already thinking about what show I will stream-binge next in the background.
Three months after my 19th birthday, I was sent home from my freshman year of college for 2 weeks for some kind of virus going around. I spent those two weeks in blissful ignorance with my friends, waiting on an email with a return date from our colleges that would never come.
In addition to being a lovely person, my sister also possesses a great memory, meaning the slightest hint of something you might drop in discussion can turn up in a lovely gift at any time. Staring down at the gleaming rendition of Abe Lincoln I remembered how the last time we spoke I told her about how I was getting into coin collecting after reading an article about this one particular printing of penny that had just sold at an auction for an exorbitant price. This one didn’t have the defect that made that one so valuable, but it was rare nonetheless.
the patterns do not change __ __ __ __
they are misremembered __ __ __ __
cool hand __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
separate heat __ __ __ __ __ __
In Chicago again, but years after, from the airport with my bags all packed, clutching a small quilted pillow and a backpack, my passport and a ticket for Rome in my hand. Blow a kiss. Wave wildly. Say farewell. My grandmother with her butterscotch breath. With her Filipino kisses: her nose pressed to my cheek, one long sniff.
I put my pants on like everyone else: throwing my pants in the air mid-handstand the pastor preached to his congregation. Edward Fortyhands with the monkey’s paw the congregation preached back.
Sarah enters the castle. Carmen takes over and helps her get acclimated. Come to find out, she’s missing from the Center for Wayward Girls. Family died in a fire. A troubled kid bounced around in foster care homes.
What should I do? I know she met the judge. I mentioned him. She couldn’t stop shaking.