My middle name is Ilse, after my grandmother who sold her belongings for diamonds that she hid in the soles of her shoes when she left Nazi Germany with my father and his baby brother. She had breast cancer. Died before I was born. My tumor was on the side of my left breast. I […]
Untitled #14
Yesterday I woke up thinking about a movie I saw in Perth several years ago. A documentary about a family who moves to the Canadian wilderness, the story is a beautiful portrayal of isolation, hardship, and unconditional love. But what was it called? As my tea brewed, I pulled my robe tighter and took a […]
Welcome to 2021: A One-Woman Show
The stage is dark except for one lit candle poking out of a blood orange, balancing on a card table. The second movement of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” is blasting and it’s the frenetic strings part that sounds like rats running across a roof. A woman sprints down the center aisle of the theater […]
The Could-Haves
Living through a pandemic means endless hours of evaluating risk and erring on the side of caution. The enemy is invisible and highly contagious. Friends could be poisonous, and a neighborhood walk feels like a spin of the roulette wheel. We’re out of eggs but is it worth killing Grandma? When isolation frustration kicks in, […]
I Wrote A Book
I don’t have any tattoos. I admire some tattoos – very few to be honest – but some. My favorites are the ones that are not thought out in advance. The ones that are sketched in a dark bar and inked that same night. I also love the roses. So many roses on so many […]