This is the writer’s desk, an overview of all posts.
Later that night, Ana walked to the bar to prove to Lindsey that the lighter still worked. She had called the lighter broken. “Fill it up then,” Lindsey replied, with her usual big smile, “and bring it tonight.” The gravity of these words did not escape Ana, who muttered, “T-tonight, […]
There was this badass coworker of mine, a teacher who skedaddled to Hungary last year. We chatted a lot between classes, in the halls of our school. Who knows where he is now (as in, I haven’t messaged him in a while, and he’s probably still modeling three-piece suits on […]
Today, as I write, is Good Friday. Can we do an hour of meditation on good and evil? Yes. Let’s start one way, turn the other, then conclude somewhere in the middle. “Good.” My favorite word is a simple word: good. I love good, I like good, […]
Sore-throated and restless, our hero today discovers the root. He moved to a new city last week, and has been learning the language. Technically, it’s an old city, old language, since his family is from here originally. For this, something tells him he has returned to the city, although […]
A good book invites you to a world. A great book enters yours. Both happened when I read the Alchemist. Storytime. I was on my way to the airport, on my way to Europe to help the lady move her things to Bucharest. Per tradition, I made my […]
America is a pretty important place. And yes I call it America, because that is how I grew up hearing it. I like the name, too, what’s there to say. A-mer-i-ca. Merica. Murica. If it suddenly stopped existing, which if we believe what anyone says, could be any day […]
The restroom was occupied. So Margot danced to the center, where Gaspar and Linda were wrapped in a single embrace. When the couple noticed who was approaching, they made room. “Happy birthday,” shouted Gaspar. “You throw cool parties,” followed Linda. Margot thanked the new couple, handing […]
Today I would like to put words to the following concept: ROMÂNIA. The prompt is “Which country impressed you the most?” I won’t say “the most, the most”, but this one above many moves me to move there. To provide the post with a sense of focus, and […]
“. . . come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret.” My uncle used to say, a bad lunch ruins your day. You go away hungry for not having eaten, angry for having spent the money, and, on top of […]
What if I told you a story? Breakfast with mamá, galleria area Houston, 2014 — the year I came back home to live with my parents. She hints at my finding a job as casually as she stirs the sugar in her coffee. I ruffle my nose. It […]
Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream. (English Language nursery rhyme) I wouldn’t have read Finnegans Wake if it hadn’t been for Ela. It was a winter weekday, stopping at a sidewalk book vendor, when I saw […]
Be water, my friend. Bruce Lee Praise to the blocks, the stumbles and locks! They keep villains away, keep terror ad hoc. The purpose of a block is to channel, you know, a flow the consciousness doesn’t know; while laziness allows us to rock peace or pajamas. And what’s […]
Why not jot down the top ten bucket-list trips I would fancy? For now they are fantasy, that is deliberately wild. But thus all the more dreamy. Can you guess the common thread? 1. TRANS-SIBERSKI-EXPRESS The first would take a good two months, to do it real chill from […]
A poignant question, and I seem to have but an hour to ponder the thought. Thus I invite you to take your index finger and run it along the cracks of your vanity mirror, get it out of your matrix. This one’s on the penny side to-day. Ride. Is […]
Big-breasted women, five steins a hand, and charming men in green, short-short overalls stuffed each other’s mouths with bratwurst and beer till they couldn’t rock no more. Bavaria. Its capital: München. Things played out a little differently there for the boys and me, who had gotten used to the exaggerations […]
The Elements of Style by Strunk and White rests on my bookshelf like a couple at the beach. Eyes closed, enjoying the sun, a tan, the sounds of the literary world tossed at sea, though thoroughly relaxing. We have all, in our mission for clarity and acuteness, turned to […]
This blogger knows he is about to walk through a room cluttered with cliches (ex, “Art for art’s sake,” “Business is an art,” “Selling out,” “Get ya money”), but stepping past each one, eyeing them a second, so as to reach the clear corner of the room, to breathe. […]
A story is a story, but a narrative is the story plus how you tell it. Genette’s essay titled Narrative Discourse inspires all sorts of thoughts. Mostly, he has me thinking about time. He analyses mood and voice too, but what really makes me shiver is time. For example, […]
“Rick was a bro, a gentleman seen few and far between, of a caliber unknown to the race of man, the headless baton twirler in a parade called Life, a backpacker extraordinaire, a counter-demon and Lord of the Pismire. Rick Callaghan.” (The Summer Abroad, Part III, Chapter 8.) Thus […]
4.0 out of 5 stars A conversation with the divine Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019 Some of us are too busy rubbing our thumbs against a phone screen, or sticking our nose between the pages of good books. (Hey, I’m one of them, one of us […]