Category: ow

There is stasis and then there is the inciting incident. The inciting incident must happen for the rest of the play to move forward and certainly for anything to resolve. She sat in class listening to a visiting playwright explain this process. She noticed the girl next to her had green nail polish that was…

She received a bit of hopeful news when she was out getting a coffee. Not good news, not yet. But a possibility. Which was a sea change from the self-pity she had been sailing through. Although the air was thick and uncomfortable, she wanted to stay in the moment longer. Before things were either good…

In the morning, she told her co-worker that she was supposed to hear back that afternoon about an apartment she loved and had applied for. Her co-worker asked her if she would like to say a prayer, no pressure. She said absolutely, I’ll take all the help I can. Following her co-worker’s lead, she bowed…

The professor asked the class to discuss Ovid’s world building in the Metamorphoses. She responded to the representation of emotion causing actions causing an environmental shift. Jealousy causing murder causing blood spilled causing the color of the flowers to change forever. Last week when she took the train back after class, it was a familiar…

No matter what the circumstances, her body woke itself up between 6:53 and 7:03 each morning. No matter if she went to sleep at 10pm or 5am. No matter if she took a sleeping pill or drank special calming tea. Some things in the body are malleable. Some things are not. The subway was extra…

Always this question: What is your reason for moving? She sometimes wanted to respond: People move. Buildings do not. She sometimes wanted to respond: You’ve heard that fact about sharks? That if they don’t move forward, they die? She sometimes wanted to respond: Unforeseen cataclysmic disaster. She sometimes wanted to respond: None of your business.…

Something as simple as cooking a meal. Selecting a few vegetables from the drawer. Chopping them up. Sautéing them in some olive oil. Boiling water to soften a grain. It had been over three weeks since she had performed these tasks. Such small tasks. So small, that she wondered if she should even bother doing…