Egg-Yolk Sunshine State of Mind

It was the still, sticky, egg-yolk afternoons that made her think of mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers. When the sun is her stinkiest, the salt dissipating from her skin and bubbles on the pores of everyone and everything she laid her eyes on, that was when cotton dresses, floral patterns, gold bands and blue stonesContinue reading “Egg-Yolk Sunshine State of Mind”

Like Wood in a Fireplace

A voice smooth and uncoiling singing to Abdulhalim, crackling when it tried to get the high notes. Like wood in a fireplace lit on a silvery blue snowy evening on the only day of the year that the country snowed. Singing waves of crumbling notes, soothing songs of white joyful lies. Songs of motherhood. LikeContinue reading “Like Wood in a Fireplace”

The Best Breadcrumbs

“Tell me about your dreams”, his mother says.  She slices through a cool cucumber that seemed to have lost all its juice. He wants to say that he won’t eat this powdery mildew; that she will one day end up with a fungal disease if she lets her vegetables sit around the bottom drawer allContinue reading “The Best Breadcrumbs”

über daring

On that day, it rained so much in St. Gallen. Sankt Jakob-Strasse was flooded. I was staying at a hotel owned by a dear friend. I was at the reception asking the receptionist to order me a taxi when the first few drops started to plunder. I had just finished eating but had no timeContinue reading “über daring”

Fire Island Scribbles – 1-

A dialogue about people – I like raw people – So, like, what? You like them uncooked?  – …. Yes. I like them uncooked. Not even seared, not the slightest heat touching them.  – Do they also have to be whole? Or can they be sliced, chopped, julienned? – The knife can have touched them,Continue reading “Fire Island Scribbles – 1-“

Why Kombucha

Who’ll tell you why  Why we hope and dream  Why we tell ourselves first,  And each other later,  Lies that are half-truths:  Half in knowing, And half in not knowing  That we are never going to fully  Be in the knowing.  (Guess which half  Is more submerged in the self than the other.  Guess, then,Continue reading “Why Kombucha”

The Doctrine of Signatures

On one of the thirty-three islands they call home, my thoughts can rarely puddle up together to form droplets for a cloud to condense upon. They stagnate in the atmosphere; rarely falling to wash things away, adding to the methane gas emanating from the cow fields over many out-theres, alternating the amount of solar energyContinue reading “The Doctrine of Signatures”

Rock Bottom

It’s past midnight now. After hours of online research with the commercial tunes of the latest Albanian hits playing from YouTube for inspiration, another good portion of my brain is officially numbed to render me calm and useless for work. I am sitting on the edge of the low windowsill with the window open, lookingContinue reading “Rock Bottom”

To Pour Out

… and then to just pour out of the cracked cup. Not from the rim like most people do – no – rather you’d be slowly tick tocking, drip dropping, out of the cup from the ruggedness of the crack. You won’t be so watery like most people are; you’d be thick like the consistentContinue reading “To Pour Out”

Marigolden

I felt like home among the golden glint of the Marigold flowers coddled under the belly of the sun.Miles away from home, an electric jolt of adrenaline nudged my heart so that my whole chest heaved when I breathed in.I felt like water. Or more like snow; wrong for a girl raised by a rockyContinue reading “Marigolden”