Catapult Alumni
Climate Change and Western Rivers
Methodically untying the boat from one of the last old-growth cottonwoods near the ramp along the Colorado River, Susette, a retired river guide, gazed upstream describing how much the river corridor has changed since she started taking clients down the river thirty years ago. Spring runoff is happening earlier, meaning by late summer there is […]
Thanksgiving
You know it’s almost Thanksgiving when I open my desk drawer and blow the dust off my recipe file. My kids are grown, it’s just Michael and me, and who needs to cook for two. But this year, like every year, the whole extended family will congregate in my home, a gaggle of sons and […]
I Hear America Singing Different
I, too, hear America singingFrom where the margin is the center I hear it sing the whistles of guillotinesthat sit upon heads like tropical fruit basket hats,overflowing with small universes of bountyand fiefdoms of riches I hear it sing with the chomp of perfect teeth on a cavendish,masticating fruit & bone & gutswith the subtle […]
All You Need For A Party
Mami always said you only need some soda and a radio for a party You see there’s something magical some alchemy about that recipe Somehow it conjured potfuls of rice and beans and plastic table covers and tía Orfelia with a cooler full of tamales and tía Noris with a duffel of pasteles en hoja […]
This is Mine Now
I was cleaning out the desk of a girl in my class who happened to be absent that day. We had been friends, but she had recently found others. As I cleaned, I came across a stack of red admission tickets, the type they used to hand out at carnivals for rides. They were lunch […]
The Hundred, and the Captain and His Ship
One day, there was an experienced captain of 20 years, sailing a passenger ship with 100 people on board. Without checking with the people in charge if the ship was inspected well prior to the trip, he confidently sailed into the sea. With the ship’s little damages unnoticed, they soon found some water getting into […]
