A very short drama (A woman, Virginia, works at a desk with a glowing computer. There is a window within her view. There is a closed door. The rest of the space is empty, dark. She composes, typing click-click as she goes) VIRGINIA This was a family, much like any other American family during the… Continue reading Yes, Santa, there is a Virginia Woolf
Month: June 2011
Romance at The Dead (Fiction Wednesday)
When Eddie proposed to May during a Dead concert, it blew everyone away. Earlier that day, May hid in the long grass outside Eddie’s farmhouse and watched the boys pack up a blue rental car to leave for The Grateful Dead at Alpine Valley. Though she hadn’t been invited, she knew their plans by way… Continue reading Romance at The Dead (Fiction Wednesday)
Still My Daddy
After my parents separated, weeks before my high school graduation, I stayed with my father. Daddy’s little girl. Daddy at work in his office, about 1978 He was many years older than my mother and seemed more needy. My mother was leaving him. We had lost our big colonial four-bedroom house in the combined financial… Continue reading Still My Daddy
On My Mysterious Womanhood
It causes me to color my hair and paint my lipsAnd enjoy a new outfit more than politics It surges through me with waves of emotionSometimes hard to navigate and harder to explain It helps me fall in love at the drop of a hatWith children and men and older women It makes me bleed… Continue reading On My Mysterious Womanhood
The Governor’s Wife
They brought him a paper to sign. Forensic evidence was conflicting: a fractured infant’s skull; a slow, deep-brain bleed. “Died in its sleep,” one medical expert kindly deduced. The mother panicked, alone when it happened. The father absconded to his mistresses’ apartment, although that fact wasn’t presented at trial. Post-partum depression. She had become impossible… Continue reading The Governor’s Wife
Small Blessings, Warm Fruit
My son comes to me in the morning and hugs me like sunshine on a tomato. My husband calls me “sweet” at the dinner table. They know what the problem is and have a small, non-invasive surgery for it. They will get us in next week. I was looking for a… Continue reading Small Blessings, Warm Fruit
A Comical Herstory of Rape
My first rapist took my virginity: I was 14, and he was 24, so it was statutory rape. He was playing the villain and I was the ingénue in an old fashioned melodrama at a community theatre. I was very attracted to him and I wanted to date him. He resisted, saying I was too… Continue reading A Comical Herstory of Rape