The Long Form

Tag: routine

  • 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…

  • 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…