The Woman who Hand-painted her Wall Indigo

When I was a student, there was a ravishing woman with peculiar thin Medusa hair whom I drove past every late morning. I stopped a couple of narrow town houses down from hers to throw my garbage out, where the garbage metal containers were all huddled near each other on a clearing made before aContinue reading “The Woman who Hand-painted her Wall Indigo”

An Insomniac’s Morning Hours

When the call to prayer sounds and the sun’s about to rise, my thoughts restlessly dissect this sorrow, that guilt, old lies. “I can’t keep up”, I say,  “slow down and stop the mumbling!” But they answer with obtuse eloquence,  lingering, rolling, and tumbling.  How lucky I find those people,  who are right now asleep. Continue reading “An Insomniac’s Morning Hours”

Long Sentences on Short Flights

If I hadn’t cried that day at the airport by my flight’s gate with disconcerting openness, the mid-aged lady with the outrageously long acrylic nails and red flannel shirt tied around her waist would not have stared to then excuse herself from staring and amiably point out the mascara goop at the corner of myContinue reading “Long Sentences on Short Flights”

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”

But First, Coffee

My eyes felt heavy, but I didn’t let them rest after the too-much they had stayed open for, and the much-more they were waiting for to happen. I blinked very fast, too. In case you turned to look my way and find me mid-blink, then you might have thought my eyes are resting so myContinue reading “But First, Coffee”

Chrysanthemums & Berliners

“It’s not so easy!” My granddaughter cried.  I looked down at the wrinkles on my knuckles and stretched a leathery fold on one of them. I waited until the skin slowly retracted to its place; I lingered momentarily at the shape it made, that of a half-moon or a lopsided grin. Then I looked atContinue reading “Chrysanthemums & Berliners”

Fired Up by a Thought

Fired up by the thought that a vitamin can heal, she woke up that morning and prepared for a meal. Some eggs with some vegetables, some fruits in a bowl. And a pot-full of porridge to nourish her soul. ** As she stood in her kitchen, her heart beat so fast. Why am I anxious?Continue reading “Fired Up by a Thought”

And Just Like That

And just like that, my love for him swelled, it overflowed over the rim of its cup and poured all over the table like a large boundless map of a suddenly borderless unknown world, which I newly marked here, and there, and here, and at the far end of it down there where Australia usedContinue reading “And Just Like That”