May 2010
6 posts
1 tag
I am in Singapore and my breasts are like towers.
I’ve wanted to say that since I got here, but I’ve resisted since it makes no sense. It is a riff off Song of Songs 8:10: I am a wall and my breasts are like towers. I read that in church camp the summer after eighth grade; rumors were going around that Song of Songs had all the dirty stuff in it. Nobody did much about it save for me—I...
1 tag
In Iowa City these deeds were done: I shook hands with Barack Obama; I piled sandbags against a flooding river; I saw the house where Kurt Vonnegut wrote Slaughterhouse Five; I saw Kurt Vonnegut; I marched down the street at Michael Moore’s side; I loved a girl; I took care of a seven-foot-long boa constrictor; I ate Indian food and more Indian food; I kissed a girl for the first time (but...
3 tags
Today I experienced a disassociation. It was fleeting, but for the moment I had it, I felt it intensely. I was at the library working as usual, but today, while I sat behind the circulation counter, I stared at Jesse, my co-worker. Particularly the cuff of her blouse against her wrist. As I did this—and it didn’t last more than 3 seconds—reality faded. I didn’t know who I was, where I...
5 tags
Dear Ryan,
This e-mail has been written about five times. It is 1:09 AM. This IS a warning. Stop reading this email as soon as the thought, “Eli is a moron” starts to stir in your brain gills. So what is it that I want to say to you? Happy Birthday! There is an excuse why I didn’t say this on your actual birthday, but heck! You don’t need that! You just need a Happy...
5 tags
Fall 2008, Red Journal
There are two people in my creative writing class who prefer soda to coffee. I find them unnerving because I remember being much younger and also preferring soda to coffee. I saw coffee as something that adults drank so that it must be that I (with my 3-cup-a-day habit) am an adult now. Almost thirty! Sheesh. Earlier today I drank coffee with a woman. Her hair was as black...
4 tags
I have been sick the past two days and have gotten very little done. I’m okay. The snails in Singapore are enormous. They come out after it rains and crawl across the sidewalks like earthworms do. It would be terrific to be a snail and to have everywhere be food, fresh greens! There is spinach in my fridge, but it wilts. No appetite! I should offer it to the snails and maybe to the lone toad...