This is just to say

I wore your shoes with the painted red bottoms the ones you said were for special occasions Forgive me my feet and my heart needed wings  

Hold Your Breath and Close Your Eyes

The organ pressed its cadence into the sanctuary. Ahhhh-men, blared from a sea of open mouths. It was time. As I waded into the warmish, waist-deep water, waiting to be tipped backwards into a future I didn’t believe in, I wondered if anyone (besides me) had ever peed.   photo: mercyhillchurch.com  

Sorry, not sorry

I am a Class A People Pleaser – a living, breathing apology - and I kind of hate that about myself.  Notice I said "kind of" just then? I've only written two sentences and I've already apologized by softening a hard truth. People who need to make everyone happy like I do know how to smooth…

After

(Trigger warning: rape, death) After you told me you had been fucking your dance teacher for the entire four years we were together; after I moved on, found someone new; after you dragged me into that hotel room, the one at the back of the complex where no one could hear my staccato protestations, see…

A study of thanatosis (playing dead) as an anti-predatory coping strategy in various species.

Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse A number of animals including mammals, insects, and reptiles exhibit a type of adaptive behavior known as playing dead or tonic immobility. This behavior is commonly seen in animals that are lower on the food chain but can be exhibited in higher species. Also known as thanatosis, playing dead is often…

Falling is easy, it’s getting back up that’s hard

Spring, 2006. I was heart-racing-squeal-at-the-top-of-my-voice excited to leave work to meet a realtor to discuss a gorgeous split-level. After moving 15 times in 13 years, this was going to be my first real house house, with its vaulted ceilings and its big-enough-for-a-dog-and-a-swingset-and-a-hammock backyard. I burst out the door in my platform wedges, and as I…

Drug Facts

(An easier-to-read version of this post is below the following image.) Drug Facts Active Ingredient: Menopause Purpose: Invisibility Uses: Helps rid the body of possible fetuses—wanted or unwanted. Allows users to swim near sharks with minimal risk. Increases appetite enabling the user to eat a pie that has fallen out of the fridge onto the kitchen floor while…

The Mirror Auditions: Take One

"Mirror, mirror—" "Let me stop you right there. Your quest to be the "fairest" is rooted in the fact that your mother was a narcissist and your father, well . . . Look. We live in a world bent toward impossible standards of beauty. Focus on—" "NEXT! . . . Can someone clean this up?" __

How to have the perfect lips

Step 1: Exfoliate. You need a smooth surface if you're going to have perfect lips. The slightest hint of dry skin will form a jagged barrier between you and that promotion you've been putting in long hours for, between singlehandedly closing the wage gap for women and minorities by giving the most inspiring Ted Talk of…

What it feels like to have PTSD

  startled by sound fog blowing   almost a gale all     strength     run              down the chance of being rescued         sank   alone the day          an ocean                              …