Dad was alone in Kyiv. Reported a fever. Said he put on a mask and made sure the neighbor has the spare keys, “In case I croak, my love” Me: “Dad, NO!” Dad: “You’re right. I don’t like your aunt much. Maybe the joy of discovering my body should be hers” *** Me: “Hey dad,Continue reading “My father’s greatest hits and misses”
Category Archives: Personal Essays
The Longest
Whether it’s a quake in the voice, or a full-bodied, let-the-neighbors-pause-in-their-well-carved-out-daily-routines wail is not the point. The point is that either one works. The clusterfuck of orphaned cables, the streets stamped with ghosts — everywhere is a hostile environment, crackling, kinetic. Asking a device to forget another device, a brief feeling of jealousy at theContinue reading “The Longest”
I talked about abuse and made you uncomfortable? Good.
“People mistake vulnerability for intimacy. It’s not just annoying, it’s damaging.” — these words from my friend and Anti-Nihilist Institute co-founder Anna Lind-Guzik have been knocking around in my head lately for a reason. Vulnerability is a useful tool of connecting to one’s audience. This isn’t just true of confessional writing. When I began to openContinue reading “I talked about abuse and made you uncomfortable? Good.”
My theory of seamless love
“There’s making love, there’s sex, and then there’s fucking.” I forget who said that to me when I was young and impressionable, but it made sense at the time. Making love was what people in “The English Patient” did. It was very serious and probably set to violins. Sex was what people did when theyContinue reading “My theory of seamless love”
Walking back from the Lower East Side on a hot night
Walking back from the Lower East Side on a hot night, the stores have reverted to their true selves – which is to say that they are mirages now again, fragile beneath the great emptiness yawning over the streets, insides scooped out of illusion. Bars disgorge the happy and drunk and the unhappy and drunkContinue reading “Walking back from the Lower East Side on a hot night”
Natalia A. 