Author: Laura
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Mary
My hands broke sticks from the fallen limb Their voices reached me before they did They took up the sky The largest flock of migrant geese I’ve seen, and I stopped and watched I asked if they were going to Canada, and my imagination failed Before my eyes they unraveled The followers flowing up to…
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The AD Hates Me
The other morning, I was grumpy about how hard it is to make coffee. It’s not actually hard; I was just tired and impatient. I ladle grounds into a little reusable filter for my Keurig, and I am hasty enough that it’s easy to get coffee grounds everywhere, and I’m picky enough that I hate…
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Revival
So. How were the last three, or maybe five or six–or possibly like ten–years for you? Mine were OK, I guess. Meaning they were kind of a foggy blur of loss and pandemic and political theater and scary weather patterns. I was grateful that I like my house and I found therapy in gardening, pets,…
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Any Story but Their Own
Have you ever kind of bumped into a stranger’s story? For example, one time I was at a stoplight and watched a woman climb out of the driver’s seat of her vehicle, take her purse from the back, and walk away down the street. Eventually a very angry man got out of the passenger’s seat…
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The Bath
I will finish my book with a glass of wine. The bath water isn’t quite warm enough. Forgot my glasses. Can’t read. Getting cold. Hunker down. Can’t reach wine. Don’t really want it. Outside cat rhythmically howls. Howl. Beat. Howl. Beat. We are separated. Teen. Frigid air rushes in. “Mealworms in the pancake mix.” (Where…
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Me Time!
After a hectic morning playing video games with people immediately upon waking, medicating and feeding various pets and foster kittens, finding ingredients for “elephant toothpaste,” telling people they couldn’t eat brownies for breakfast, trying to get people to please just clean up their dishes, telling people they had to go outside–you know, the usual–I decided…
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Distance Learning
Approximately 4,061 months ago, our local schools shuttered, and we started this new magic called “distance learning.” Needless to say, this is very hard for all of us. I can’t change that, but what I can do is provide some support for you parents out there. I’m going to craft a universal schedule based on…
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A Different Kind of Mother’s Day
This whole thing is terrible. I bought my mom a present what feels like a hundred years ago, but it’s heavy and fragile glass, and I feel like I don’t know how to mail things or how to accomplish much beyond the basics of somehow running a cooped-up household with my husband while we still…
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Beauty in the Hellscape
Two things happened today. One: While we were driving, my friend spotted a tiny, raggedy pup frantically running down the sidewalk of a busy street and heading for the road. My friend was the driver, so I leaped out of our car and chased the little dog down, frantically waving down speeding traffic, with the…
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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
We’re doing it all wrong. This whole winter break thing–it’s terrible. For the first few days, it’s pretty exciting. It’s almost Christmas, and even when you’re rage-wrapping on Christmas Eve, there is still that excitement in the air, even if it’s hard to feel amid arguments over the one remaining roll of tape. Christmas is…