The Long Form

Tag: life

  • Remember to Remember

    I’ve written today’s to-do list on one sideand last night’s dream on the other.Somewhere between themis the doorway to my life. In the morning,I trust the list.It has edges,boxes I can fill,verbs that behave. Call this person.Send that email.Buy milk. Remember to remember. By nightI trust the dream.It speaks in symbolsand refuses to explain itself.People…

  • Almost

    When someone asks what I’m afraid of I offer them the known. I hand them the harmless things. – Drowning. Burning alive. Falling. – The polite fears. The kind you can outgrow. – Not being alone. Becoming my mother. Loving someone like my father. – The ocean is acceptable. No one flinches when you say…

  • The Long Way Around

    I learned earlyhow to carry things without handles.  How to keep my hands busyso no one offered to take them.Because no one offered to take them.  In stores, I walk the long way around.Pretend I meant to end up here.Maps live in my head—jumbled, overlapped.So do exits,clearly labeled, flashing.  If I need something,I wait until…

  • This is not a moment I pass through. This is the condition under which I live.

    This is not a moment I pass through. This is the condition under which I live.

    I make coffee in the quiet before the day asks anything of me.  Measure. The scoop is heavier than it needs to be.Pour. Everything requires participation.Wait. The kettle takes too long. I pretend I’m in love with the idea of being alive, which feels close enough most days to pass for the real thing. The…

  • Church, park, liquor store

    Church, park, liquor store

    January 18, 2026 When people ask where I’m from—Washington, D.C. is an adult answer to a childhood life. I’m from go-go music and row houses.From sliding down the basement stairs on double-stacked cardboard boxes.From social-climbing wanna-be activists. I’m from protests that ended at dinner reservations.From people who loved justiceas long as it didn’t cost them…

  • A Brief Account of Wonder

    November 25, 2025 12:39am I didn’t notice when my heart slipped out of me. It must have happened the way everything important does—quietly,in between breaths,when the world is still deciding whether to wound you or wonder with you. One minute I was moving through the forest,thinking about absolutely nothing important—just the way the air smelled…