May 2013
1 post
6 tags
I don’t know why I remember sharing pomegranate seeds with Heather. We were both in the second or maybe third grade, hiding out in the shade of the jungle gym, pulling snacks out of brown paper bags and comparing them. My mom had packed me half a pomegranate, the weirdest snack in comparison to the fruit-roll-ups, Ritz crackers, and granola bars everyone else got. A pack of Gushers was a...
December 2012
1 post
After having said hello to everyone in the room, introducing herself to the spouses of coworkers she hardly knew in the first place, smiling and pronouncing her name correctly (Mad-uh-line) about a dozen times, she excused herself to the restroom. Looking in the mirror, she adjusted her curly red hair, tucking a large strand behind her ear. She rubbed the make-up from beneath her eye, and moved...
November 2012
3 posts
Ed was crazy, but in a good way.
Ed was not one to let anything go, especially when it came to pretty girls. We all had heard his speech about how to get a pretty girl, and despite how ungodly embarrassing it was, he always managed to have a pretty girl on his arm. He was so different from the rest of us, making charts, graphs, calculations on his social behavior, but thats why we liked him. He spent his nights analyzing his...
Naked Lunch?
Today I watched Naked Lunch for an English humanities class I am taking. I’m intrigued. I have no idea what the movie is really about, and somehow, I’m still captivated. Some thematic elements stand out to me, but I feel mostly in the dark.
For those of you who have seen it, want to grab coffee? Lets chat.
How to Tell a True Adolescence Story.
I put my arm out on the center console and closed my eyes. Even with a year and a half long heroin problem, I still couldn’t watch the needle puncture my skin. It stung, and then it was hot, too hot, burning the inside of my skin like a cigarette being put out on my arm. I grabbed the white, blood-spotted bandana from the floor of the car and pushed it against the inflamed red bump that...
October 2012
2 posts
Creepy first drafts.
Delilah’s eyes sagged with the weight of her face. Once a vibrant blue, they had transformed into stone, two unyielding orbs drowned in gray nothing. Her hair, white and thin, stood perfectly still at her shoulders, firmly combed and maintained with diligence. David remembered when her hair was long, down to her waist, and it would dance at the slightest movement of the air. It always...
The rifle, the Percocet, the rope, these were things that would do the job, but without the poetry.
Getting a little scary up in here this morning.
Around 1992 My dad accidentally bashes my head into a ceiling fan. Around 2007 I tell my best friend, Lauren, I have a hole in my heart. She worries. Around 2003 a man on the internet asks me what I’m wearing. Around 2006 I sit in Steven’s car, cigarette out the window, feet on the dash, staring out the windshield. He speaks profoundly about The Beatles while we wait for the phone...
September 2012
9 posts
4 tags
I am not a poet
The black is interrupted by a roar of laughter. The clock gleams 2:47 in small green lights across the room. A guitar wails beneath the fingers of a crapulous and mediocre musician. It’s strings sing for freedom and pray for silence in the dead of night. A sigh escapes my lips and floats into the empty space of the room. It strives to squeeze beneath the door and present...
4 tags
Pseudo-Harper's Index of Leah Newsom
Maximum amount of miles I’m allowed to drive before getting an oil change: 5,000
Likelihood that I will go closer to 10,000: 82%
Average number of times that I look at Facebook or Instagram in an hour, respectively: 2,3
Number of times that I have watched Aladdin, eaten a pint of Cherry Garcia Ben & Jerry’s, and fallen asleep before 9pm: 4
Number of empty wine bottles on top of...
6 tags
Largehearted Boy →
Need a playlist for that book your reading?
Welp, the author may have already made it.
Largehearted Boy is a great pop culture blog that brings together literature and music. I love it and hope you do too.
Anonymous asked: My mother received one of your postcards and was intrigued. She kept asking, "Why me?" Is there a specific way you pick people and how do you get the information to send it to the person? Her name has never been in the white pages and she has been married since 1999 with a different last name. We are awfully curious and, as a fellow writer, I'm interested in this because it's...
8 tags
michelle609 asked: Hi, my name is Michelle. Nice to meet you :) Do you swap postcards?
4 tags
August 2012
2 posts
7 tags
homework and heat exhaustion
Jaws is a thriller film about Chief of Police, Martin Brody, who must overcome political influence, personal fears, and general human conflict to kill an elusive shark that is wreaking havoc on a small beach town.
Jaws is a romantic comedy about a shark and a boat trying to find their place in a weird, wacky world full of angry men.
Jaws is a sci-fi suspense film about a boat, a shark, and the...
6 tags
July 2012
2 posts
3 tags
The past is like a shadow. The later it gets, the bigger it gets. It follows me around, trying to mask itself as something normal, something someone should be able to accept. While other people’s shadows get smaller in the evening, mine continues to grow. I can’t escape it. Considering the very small amount of years I’ve spent on this planet, my shadow has gathered a relatively...
June 2012
7 posts
4 tags
Thoughts of a morning:
There are a few moments of complete clarity throughout the day. For me, those moments only surface a few minutes before falling asleep, and a few minutes after waking up. In this state of lucidity, I can reflect on my day, my relationships with other people, and my entire outlook on life completely unbiased. These are the moments when I know that what I’m doing is either purposeful or ludicrous;...
She made a lackluster attempt, really. It was insulting. Her moans were muffled by boredom and I swear I could see her eyes drifting toward the television through the open door. Animal Planet was on; a show about ants. Ants were more engaging to her than our biannual attempt at sex. She didn’t even put on the lacy underwear; I had to peel off these elastic feeling, flesh-toned, ass-covering, sad...
May 2012
3 posts
“This is Michael from Travel Wonders, where all your travel dreams come true. You’ve just won a free vacation of your choice from one of our—”
Dial tone.
Next.
“This is Michael from Travel Wonders, where all your travel—”
“Remove me from your calling list.”
Dial tone.
Sip of coffee.
Next.
“This is Michael from Travel Wonders, where all your travel dreams come true. You’ve just...
[INCOMPLETE]
He sat on the curb of the street, knees up against his chest, staring at the house in front of him. Rubbing his leg nervously with his hand, he knew it would only be a few moments before they realized what he had done. The curtains in the living room whipped around beneath the flames, illuminating the window so he could see in. They were his servants, obediently guiding him through...
April 2012
2 posts
He licked the salt off his lips with a sense of longing before taking his next sip. It was as if it had been his first drink in years. Holding the glass like it would break at any moment, he spun it around on the Guinness coaster in front of him. His eyes never left the ice cubes twisting around in the tequila.
“She loves me, you know? Like, really loves me.”
I nodded. A nod was really the...
February 2012
1 post
Her skin paralleled the appearance of milk powder; it was almost as if it had never been grazed by the sun. In the west coast, this was a rarity. Most women resembled a warn out leather hand bag; but not her. She was about as close to perfect anyone ever got. Running about halfway down her back, her hair was smooth and naturally wavy; it was the color of iced tea, a little red, a little brown....
January 2012
5 posts
November 2011
2 posts
The Unstable Self
She stared back at me, right into my eyes. Her eyes were my eyes. She bored me. She disgusted me. With every movement of her face, she only grew less attractive. I had been told I was pretty, but when looking at her, I couldn’t believe it. Maybe everyone was just being sympathetic. The years of suffering showed on her face; only at 28 years old, she looked weathered. Her skin had lines in it,...
Imperative
Follow the hostess to the back of the restaurant, bobbing your head left and then right, mimicking the swaying of her ass. With an awkward acknowledgement of your staring, smile at her when she turns around and take a seat at the small table she led you to. Notice your view: everyone in the restaurant is in it, they are all eligible victims. Sip on your water. Watch the two women at the table on...
October 2011
3 posts
As soon as I get to Arizona, I will forget exactly what all of this meant. I will forget exactly what you meant. Driving through the desert in my 10 year old car that, even with extreme effort, may or may not make it, I watched mountains pass other mountains, practicing their poses for the times that a less apathetic person drives through them. The road doesn’t end. It continues further,...
I am perpetually in a state of exhaustion. A rain cloud has pulled itself from the atmosphere, made its way through my ear, and into my head. It creates a wall between my thoughts and reality; I am living in a dream land. Everyone around me seems to be moving in slow motion, nodding and chewing with this sense of ignorance. They have no idea they are all just a part of my dream land. These people...
Watchosephj:
alwaysscomingbackhometoyou:
“I was born deaf and 8 weeks ago I received a hearing implant. This is the video of them turning it on and me hearing myself for the first time :) Edit: For those of you who have asked the implant I received was Esteem offered by Envoy Medical”
sloanchurman
This is probably the most endearing thing I have ever seen. Life is beautiful.
This has nothing...
September 2011
6 posts
In the middle of the loft, there was a metal restaurant-style table. It was brushed stainless steel, and was pristine. She never sat at it, nor did anyone else. It was merely decorative in her less than active social life. Above the table, a lamp hung, illuminating only the table and a small circular area around it. Despite the inactivity of the table, the lamp was always on, as if waiting for...
“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the...”
– Franz Kafka
So, if you would like to tell me why I am awake right now, I’d appreciate it. It’s going to be a lot easier than figuring it out for myself.
I remember the last time we talked. I was laying in a stretcher in the back of an ambulance taking me from Banner Thunderbird Hospital to Aurora Behavioral Health. I remember asking you to forgive me, and to help my parents forgive me. I remember shaking and...
Freewriting
There are times in my life where I am completely at a loss for words, believe it or not. Its rare, but it does happen. This, in my exceedingly verbal and articulate life, is intensely frustrating. The many combinations of words in the English language are how I relate to the world, and without them, I am alone. Today I am alone.
This morning I awoke from an accidental thirteen hours of sleep;...
What is mutuality, exactly? The dictionary that is attached to the operating system on my Mac has two different definitions:
1. (of a feeling or action) experienced or done by each of two or more parties toward the other or others: a partnership based on mutual respect and understanding | my father hated him from the start, and the feeling was mutual.
• (of two or more people) having the same...
August 2011
5 posts
There was a lot of silence in the hospital room. You could see it bouncing off the walls, slowly, like jellyfish. It encompassed the room, only leaving small spaces for small sounds to escape. My brother’s mouth was moving, but only long, low sounds were audible; he sounded like a scuba diver trying to yell through all of the jellyfish. I could feel a glaze over my eyes as I watched the silence...
