We go around the room and say our names, why we came here.† “I’m Sasha” I say.† The teacher looks at me, calculating, and says “So, you’re…”† She trails off.† “Aleksandra,” I say.† “But I go by Sasha.”† “Great!” she says.
I have built my first wall.† Already I am two people, one real, one imaginary.† [...]

[Read more →]

I am reading poems on the bus up to 78th street.† I think being on a bus is like living inside of a poem.† Faces make meanings instead of words.† Faces enter your consciousness and leave it in an endless rhythm of uncertainty, stumbling, bumping into each other, grabbing on to nearest solid object.† Faces [...]

[Read more →]

A man was sitting slumped on a beige chair in the waiting room of the Stand-Up MRI I pass on my way from the subway to my apartment. The room was brightly lit. There was a picture of a flower on the wall in a brown frame. The man looked barely conscious, [...]

[Read more →]

I have entered a state of existence — I’m not sure how long it’s going to last — in which my primary emotion is fear. Something (someone) has frightened me, the same way that a dog lunging from around the corner would frighten a small child, even if the child loves dogs. It is not [...]

[Read more →]

I’m in my old room — I lived here when I was a teenager. The calendar is showing me December of 2004; I guess I kept it updated for a few years after I moved out. There is a gargoyle on the top page, melting snow dripping off its smug stone face. [...]

[Read more →]