Malice in Wonderland

This year, I promised myself I would publish one book, a book of poetry to be exact. It's comprised of poems spanning the last decade and some change of my life. I wanted a small win to keep me chugging along on the novel whose first draft is like 98 - 99% done.   After fighting with formatting, and wondering if I've lost my mind more times than I can count, I clicked order on the proof. It won't land in my hands first. The blessing and curse of traveling is that I have to pa

This piece began eight months ago.   Four months ago, our family embarked on a cross-country road trip in a big ass pickup truck with a bigger on the inside fifth wheel attached.  As we reach the junction where our journey is to pivot and expand beyond sea to shining sea, my therapist has tasked me with reflecting not just on the past four months but on the past two years as well and what I’ve learned, what has changed, since I pushed the cremation button and decided to rise

Dust to dust...  I wanted to write this months ago, but I think the emotions were still too raw for me to articulate in a manner that was beyond babbling sobs.  I’ve learned a lot of things about ashes, specifically of the human remains variety, over the past couple of years.   I learned on the day my mother was cremated that while there are all sorts of buttons and settings trained professionals use to ensure the machine works as intended, there’s still one master button tha