Pretty much, I’m not a joiner, a fangirl (or woman), or cult prone. After having a childhood strangled by a traumatized tyrant, I became allergic to any institutional or religious power bases that taught “the way,” “the answers,” (as if the list is limited to 10 or fewer), or the…

suicide happens to others people you hear about in extended circles, no facial features tenderly mapped in memory, a broken story shared a rush of empathy passing through, then forgotten suicide happens to others until it doesn’t until the call comes your husband’s voice a catch-yell: “This is just too much!” thrusting the phone as…

There is a faint scar under my left eyebrow. It is becoming more pronounced as I age and most visible in the early morning after waking. It is reminding me that scars age, too, as remnants, symbols of the past pressing deeper into the skin, refusing to be hidden. I…

Poetry: The Sparsest Truth This is a collection of poems written about the experiences of love, suffering, violence*, wonder, and ultimately healing. Poetry is the sparsest form of truth-telling, encapsulating the individual and universal in a few stanzas. For the sake of readers who may be sensitive to the traumatic…

the tide carries in and carries out the shoreline a canvas of arrival and departure while the force of lapping and crashing waves change the bits the reach, what remains whole or broken sea water flowing clear or bubbling, frothy, sand-filled if each of us are a shore the tide of…

Poised on the edged of a forest framed by an indigo sky, she entered a clearing. There was a gathering ahead and as she drew closer, she saw a circle of people banded together around a bonfire, then fanning out in a spiral. Each person carried a tin lantern that…

In the heart of Burlington, Vermont, on College St., a chunk of road is missing. The perimeter is posted, taped, fenced, and dotted with orange cones letting foot and car traffic know this section of road is closed. Within the construction zone, heavy equipment operators are digging and maneuvering cement…