November 26, 2025.Reading time 3 minutes.

I knew from the moment she walked in the house that something was wrong. Our Ukraine roommate is usually sunny and eager to greet us when she comes home. But on this occasion, she turned her head away so I could not see what she was hiding. “It wasn’t my fault”, she responded when I […]

Unsettled

May 14, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

The buzzer on the dryer startles me and I jump up, eager to change over the wash, only to find I have forgotten to start the washer load. I feel a tug of annoyance at myself. I am not functioning well today. Have been awake since well before 4:00 a.m. and am wired with non-sleep. […]

RV-Able: The Fear Factor

November 20, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

“Don’t you get scared?” Yes and no, I think. Many things frighten me: a decline in my health, the loss of my spouse, something happening to one of my family members while I’m so far away from home. This is not what my mother is referring to, though. At 90, her view of the States […]

An Escape Plan

An incorrigible hagengages my loneliness –like an assassin sniffing outany scent of vulnerability I am lowering standardsthis history of imprisonmentenabling inappropriate openings I cry for new perspectiveponder after boundariesintending to defend Like an unwanted bullseyeI am pursued on repeatmalice considering mea problem to be solved Who is this old womanwhose thoughts are daggerswho calls upon […]

Making of a Woman

I know that abyss –swallowed up as I waspunch-drunk on darkness Bled as I emerged,each reach a scrape –there was release too Revived now, I honourthat passage, recognizethe making of a woman. (Making of a Woman first appeared here, December 2021. Image: self portrait in ink)