Catapult Alumni
Eastern Shore
The desk was littered with a myriad of no longer sticky, sticky notes, scribbled up scraps of paper and several pocket sized composition notebooks in varying conditions of tatter. A pearl white coffee mug splotched with dribs of coffee sat on a cork coaster, which sat on a scrawled over desk calendar still showing October […]
Black Ankle Fiddler
George Booker could not, by any stretch, be considered a good, God-fearing man. He was never with a woman he didn’t cheat on, always carried weighted dice, he killed two men in fits of rage, and had broke clean from the law without punishment on every transgression against man and God. No, George Booker was […]
Come And Go
The Ghost comes early in the morning. It’s the Ghost of the man who kidnapped her, kept her chained in a basement for nine years, raped her, and made her give birth to three of his children. The Ghost lies next to her in bed. It taps her on the shoulder. She wakes up and […]
A brand new world
My insensitive mother once said “those who lose one sense, develop another” What use is my acute sense of smell, except in a fire? Metal scrapyard voice of the Windows screen readerReminds me of the clanky transition,I wish, wasn’t mine.I fish for treasures in all that white trashy polyphonic noiseuntil my head bursts.Conquer JAWS or […]
Kashmir
When the driver introduced us to the valley guards as tourists from India, my mother snapped rudely“I am Kashmiri, I grew up here” Wagging her local tongue bobbing her foot-long wedding earrings strung behind her neatly coiffed black and white bun His disdainful eyes and curled lips remained unbelieving. Kashmir, the valley of almond blossoms, […]
Change Is Good
“The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it.”
Living with an Alcoholic
1 – Powerlessness, when I realized I was powerless over alcohol, my life changed. As we arrived at the airport, the kids broke into hysterics. I had never left them for more than a few days, either when they went to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, or once after my Dad suffered a stroke, I went […]
The Downside of Upside-Down
June cover of The New Yorker had a sketch illustration of a city street, crayon-like colored buildings, a few sidewalks, a bike delivery guy and a pedestrian, both wearing masks, silhouettes of people in windows during various activities, and it was all upside down. Even without flipping it around, it was clear what I was […]