Personally Speaking:
Once I would have stood up against involuntary treatment; Now I don’t, – Treatment Advocacy Center, 2024
I will never know which came first, my son’s need to self-medicate with drugs due to an undiagnosed severe mental illness, or my son’s use of drugs, which would ultimately trigger his Bipolar Type II disorder. What I do know is that it doesn’t much matter.
Did You Find Everything You’re Looking For? – The Awakenings Review, Fall 2023
I pull the car into a parking space in Reny’s large lot in Camden, Maine. Deja vu. I have made this trip before. I have held so many lists of my children’s needs for some camp or another written in pen on a piece of notebook paper in my hand. This time is different, but I fold the paper in half, make a crease, and walk into the store. It is July 2020 in Maine, and unusually hot and humid. The sliding glass doors open and the air conditioning feels too cold.
Tiny Love Stories: ‘I Confess’ – New York Times, 2022
I didn’t recognize my son in the parking lot of the Adult Crisis Stabilization Unit. His graceful walk now a shuffling gait. A thin cap, knotted at the top, pulled over his head. I wanted to ask this man, “Have you seen my son? Do you know where my devilish boy went? You seem a lot like him.” But we don’t intentionally wound our children with such questions. So, instead, I said, “I like your hat.” He said, “Thanks, the night nurse made it for me.” Weeks later, watching him walk toward me, I recognized the grace of his step.
Sandpaper Vaginas
– Hags on Fire, 2022
I sit in front of my television between the hours of 6:00 and 9:00 in the evening and watch commercial after commercial for erectile dysfunction in men. Apparently, this is an epidemic and the drug companies are determined to cure it. A middle-aged man suffering so need only consult his physician.
We Go Home – The Atticus Review, 2022
My eight-year-old son won’t get out of the car for soccer practice because he is hyperventilating in his seat. Tiny pearls of sweat bead on his forehead, his red-and-white polyester uniform shirt sticks to his chest. “Oh God,” he moans. “What if I throw up? Then I’ll be sick, and I don’t want to be sick. I’ll miss school, I’ll get behind.”
Zoom Is a Great Way to Connect, With My ADHD, It Can Be a Nightmare – Grown & Flown, 2021
Recently, I completed a questionnaire for graduate school and was asked to answer the following question: What do you appreciate about going to school on Zoom? What do you find challenging? I imagine myself on Zoom.
Onion Skin – Pangyrus, 2020
Day 6, coronavirus quarantine, 6 pm: You stand over the kitchen sink, a large onion in your left hand, a Global Sai kitchen knife in your right hand. This is a familiar position in the best of times, and it has become even more common for you since the coronavirus forced the world inside;