It's considered socially commendable to talk about your status as a war veteran, being the survivor of a natural disaster, shark attack or your amazing weight loss journey. People wildly applaud your bravery as you stand on farming equipment in your underpants getting weighed on national television. Lots of circumstances and challenges now come with campaigns,…Read more Witness
Anorexia
Hunger hurts but starving works when it costs too much to love.- Fiona Apple
Hey, It’s Ok
Over the holidays I talked with a couple of girlfriends who were heartsick over games of emotional tug of war, also known as codependence. Codependent love goes like this: Here's all the shitty, unreasonable, terrible, horrible, no good things this person did and here's all the great, rule-following, generous, responsible, hard-working, sacrificial, exhausting, never-ending, perfect things I…Read more Hey, It’s Ok
Shutter
We broke into pieces slowly, like an uncovered cake drying out for weeks on a counter. I'd say the crumbling began after he'd admitted to starting the fire in our apartment. It took a while to accept it as truth given the erosion of safety I'd been avoiding most of my adult life. I'd been brave enough to examine…Read more Shutter
Mum
It's Me! she said Like that store in Oak Bluffs A clever name ensuring identification would equate with profit It's Me! she said Of the shirt brother wanted Of the success sister achieved Of my crooked nose If it was not an extension of herself it didn't exist There are many things I can almost…Read more Mum
The Weight
He was never tasked with picking us up from anywhere and truthfully I don't remember if on this occasion, we were coming or going. What I do recall was, he couldn't see the road. Katie and Reid were oblivious in the back seat of the Isuzu looking small, bright and cute. Katie was wearing a…Read more The Weight
Wholly
Some things mark you; a tattoo, holding your first niece for the first time, getting your front teeth kicked out by an ice skate, seeing the northern lights across a hay field. On our honeymoon I swam over a jellyfish which left a spatulate, purple ghost across the tops of my thighs. A lifeguard poured…Read more Wholly
More or Less
The recipe was complex. It wasn't the product of any single ingredient; chaotic poverty, violent neighborhoods, a biological rejection of breast milk, my father's drinking, a decade of sexual abuse, ballet, track, modeling, cheerleading, gymnastics, being the smart, good, catholic girl who could babysit, clean, cook, say helpful things, the girl who got beat…Read more More or Less
up
I couldn't sleep the first night in the new apartment on Park Place. It wasn't much quieter than the projects, but I could feel we were out of that bubble now, living in the open world. I didn't know our rank here except to say we had to hide sometimes and pretend we didn't live…Read more up
Chaos and Control
My mother would be the first to point out that you could eat off my floors. But the way she would tell you was as if to mock me, as if to let you know of the drastic and rigid handicap I'm cursed with; some death-grip, psycho inability to let go. She'd monitor me at…Read more Chaos and Control
Rigid
You're never as thin as you intend to be before people begin insisting you eat more than cigarettes and black coffee. You'll also never decrease enough to satisfy the distorted images of your body in the reflections of shop windows and dressing room mirrors. Photographs might as well come with blindfolds or a razor kit.…Read more Rigid
Born in Providence 