Melophobia
Content warnings: Discussion of sexism, brief mention of sexual harassment and assault.
Well, she was just seventeen / You know what I mean
(The Beatles 1963)
And...
My Endgame
The last few moves you make in a pursuit, such as business or diplomatic negotiations or in strategic games such as chess, are your...
A Murmuration of Stones
A plot. A boneyard. A potter’s field. A necropolis. A golgatha.
I stumbled upon it one steamy day in the first summer of COVID, while...
The Crying Gene
Sensory Processing Sensitivity is not a condition, a disorder, or a diagnosis. It is a neutral trait that evolved in 20% of the human...
Animal Instinct
We’re only halfway through this hike, approaching the longest hill on our walk and Luna’s lagging behind a bit. I’m not annoyed. She doesn’t...
The Fig Tree
Because of the virus, we moved to Sonoma, into a little house we have on the top of a mountain, with its gnarly garden...
Twelve Months, Twelve Words
January 2020
Jata (Pali): the word that means tangle; can also be a name.
I really like finding words that are uncommon or unfamiliar to me....
Aprons
After my mother’s death, my sisters and brother and I embarked on a task familiar to many adult children: clearing out our childhood home....
Love Letter to My Soon to Be 13-Year-Old Black Son
This essay was originally published in August 2020, but in honor of all mothers everywhere, Pangyrus is sharing it again for Mother's Day 2021.
Dear...
Sixteen Paris Crossings or Art in the Time of Crisis
When the Museum of Fine Arts re-opened in February, I went directly to Gallery 232 in the Art of the Americas to see The...
Me, My Father, and The Persian Rug
I was at my sister’s house and received two phone calls from my father urging me to come right away. My chest was warm...
White Hair
My mother's hair is white. Bright white, like the inside of a mussel shell, iridescent. Fine lines on a pink scalp. But only for...