There's this recurring dream I can't seem to shake. The circumstances that lead up to the event differ sometimes, but the twist is always the same: my revelation that my house is threefold larger than I ever knew.

The previously undiscovered rooms (at least, undiscovered to the slumbering version of myself) are mostly empty, but there's evidence I' ( Read more... )

Three things in my life are unavoidable: crying, loving, and writing. It also seems that each one of these naturally perpetuates the others; the storied and webbed trinity of my existence. I've spent too many days doing the crying and loving without the writing, so here's a stammered attempt at acknowledging the third pillar ( Read more... )

The streets were bright and bustling;

the hubbub of the Fourth of July.

The plans for fireworks were nearing

to immortalize an eternal night.

She stumbled gently into the bar,

her best friend as her guide.

No part of her could fathom

she'd meet her partner for life.

The reunion between them was joyous,

two old friends uniting as one.

Then she noticed ( Read more... )

It was late Sunday afternoon and, legs knotted in a half-lotus, I curled happily over a book that had recently found a home in its rightful alphabetical order on my hackneyed Ikea bookshelf for months now. Its cover, framed with floral embellishment surrounding a bold and golden title, had attracted me for the mere reason that it was nothing I ( Read more... )

I came brimming with eagerness, reputation, and something (yet unrecognizable) to prove. Branded in my undergraduate sweatshirt and nose piercing recently discarded (after all, this wasn't California anymore), I gladly nestled into my designated chair behind my quasi-professional name tent on the first day of class. I glanced side to side, scanning ( Read more... )

trembling and doubled over on my living room floor, i was certain things could get no worse. every moment that passed was a lifetime of agony and despair. color drained from my body with the recollection of the darkest side of humanity that had gripped my neck just minutes before. police officers paced my apartment with guns, cameras, and ( Read more... )

dear body ( Read more... )

“My baby is a scholar!” he said proudly with his infectious smile slapped across his face as he turned to welcome me walking in the door still dressed from class. He was sitting the same barstool he always did; you know the one-right in the middle of all the action where he can see and be seen by everyone. As was the custom, his new acquaintances ( ( Read more... )

it's 8am on the day after valentine's day (the bitter irony) and my heart is already pounding. i'm pulling into the gravel parking lot next to the courthouse, fumbling through my wallet to try and find three single dollars to pay the man impatiently staring at me through my car window. he looks at me, peeved, not knowing that my blood is pumping ( Read more... )

it's the scene in 'crash' where the little girl runs to save her dad and takes a bullet. it's the moment when bambi's mother dies and tears are welling in your eyes. it's that feeling you get after watching a scary movie, when you're trying to calm yourself and remember that it's not real, that it's hollywood that creates the horror and that it isn ( Read more... )