Mother Cake
Scratch In May 2020, Minnesota Stay-at-Home Order Week Five, I see a recipe in the newspaper: parsnip-cardamom-ginger cake with buttercream frosting. I write down the ingredients. Maybe flour is back in stock. It’s the day of my weekly grocery run, and yes, I grab a five-pounder of flour off the …
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Marbles, and Other Things of a Spherical Shape
The Marble Collectors Society of America explains, “There are many mineral spheres available. Most of these are not true marbles, but merely minerals in the spherical shape.” The Truth of Marbles Grandfather brought home a beaten-up pachinko machine. Look at these metal spheres, Grandfather said, holding the objects in …
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-ing
cw: implications of sexual trauma clench clench clench clench clench clench clench the doctor says I have to stop holding my vagina like a fist. I tell him I am a young woman: I don’t fight, I don’t have fists. I am just pursing: purse, verb, very, ladylike. e.g.: …
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Set the City Spinning
The winter after I had my heart broken, I fell in love with the city. The sound of bike bells and dog barks and arguments and lust and longing and feet and tables and chairs scraping, spilling through walls and windows and ceilings every hour of every day, blanketing me …
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the first national anthem : the last elegy
and what is our national anthem if not an elegy? we no longer carry cardamom to house parties, instead we gift the front lawn with cloves, tumbleweeding from our hands. present the open veins of sprig leaves as a peace treatise. we question every invitation with invitation; no home is …
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