Content note: this piece deals with addiction, abuse, and intergenerational trauma. I wish my father a happy birthday.He tells me he’s drinking again,And that he hardly heard from anyone.I can only ever write poems about him. Write back, he always says.His emails come quickly, contain hardly anything.Write back, he always says.Write back. I have toContinue reading “Happy Birthday, Dad”
Tag Archives: writing
A Nest of Lies
Those little things thatDon’t add upOr make sense.Those things thatDon’t sit quite right.Are they concealing something larger? When, finally, we lift this old stone from the mossy earth,Will we find, writhing on the ground,Churning in the dirt,Attempting to flee the scene,Creatures without mouths, without eyes? In place of a man, will we find a nestContinue reading “A Nest of Lies”
The Vaccine
Content note: this piece is about the COVID-19 pandemic. I walk up to the hospital. There’s a line with a sign that says “COVID VACCINES”. I get in it. A woman lines up behind me and starts coughing. I inch forward. A nurse hands me a medical mask. “You can take off your mask andContinue reading “The Vaccine”
I Like to Walk
I like to walk through urban wastelands.I like to walk where I won’t stumble upon anyone.I like to walk where the grass is dead and the buildings are disused.I like to walk past peeling billboards, abandoned advertisements.I like to walk out of pedestrian-friendly zones, out of friendly zones.I like to walk in areas only meantContinue reading “I Like to Walk”
50 Ways to Avoid Writing
People always ask me, “Sage, how is it that you have so skillfully refined the art of avoiding writing?” I tell them there is no one simple answer, no quick fix. There’s a lot of little answers, a whole variety of distractions that make up the whole. You have to practice, do a little everyContinue reading “50 Ways to Avoid Writing”
Sage Pantony 