I hope the good doctors at Betty Ford can help me try to live a more minimalist lifestyle.

But u ignore me like i am a pencil that has disappointed you.

It stretched its body from the roof of the cage to kiss her . . .

My father’s departure from my life happened so abruptly.

“Thank God for birth control!”

...many residents were on welfare, didn’t vote, and lived in tiny brick row houses...

Her tears were an aphrodisiac . . .

...a terrible famine swept the kingdom.

“It’ll be crazy—crazy good!”

Share:FacebookTwitterLinkedinTumblrPrint Self Conscious gaze / regard The incident is trivial (it is always trivial) but it will attract to it whatever language I possess. (Barthes) She has a seat to herself until the man gets on and mutters to his kid sit by that   ugly girl over there.

Share:FacebookTwitterLinkedinTumblrPrint Ablutions This isn’t how I hoped I’d live my life, suddenly awake as the phone blares disco beats. The iPhone starts to shake with a wheezed malevolence. Deep breath. Slap down a groping hand. Toilet. Toothbrush. Shower. Shave. Each civilized demand feels like a move toward life itself, as warmth courses through the veins.

Share:FacebookTwitterLinkedinTumblrPrint Frost Advisory Viscous purple light of sundown & the mountains in silhouette. Autumn delivers its ultimatums, & the skeletal magnolia shivers. Every morning this month I’ve filled the bird feeder & by dusk it’s empty again. Scattered on the grass, seed husks & blood splatter; hunger already forgotten in the roughhouse wind.

...the thwack of rubber bands and the pounding of feet on the steps.

Share:FacebookTwitterLinkedinTumblrPrint Laisse-Moi Tranquille Each night I rinse the truck in the depot off Meserole. I nod to the other drivers, tuck my braid in the back of my shirt. A rat floats through the oil. Shoe-trees of metal line the edge of the iris. Knowing you will love me almost kills me.

Share:FacebookTwitterLinkedinTumblrPrint Jacqueline Bishop: Earl there seems to be one painting following another in the past few years. What accounts for this new surge of creativity? Earl McKenzie: I took early retirement for two main reasons. First, I wanted to be able to take better care of my health. Second, I wanted time to see what kind of artist, writer and philosopher I could become if I devoted more time to these activities.

Do not expect the arrival of a canned ham or nylons.

I looked ahead with a determined, goose-step-like amnesia.

Raising the recurring question of authenticity . . .

Share:FacebookTwitterLinkedinTumblrPrintAs a curator you have to be conscious of who you are showing and why you are showing that artist. It is not enough to say that you are showing women artists, because different groups of women struggle differently. Furthermore, the most important criterion for showing any artist’s work, according to Evelyn Hankins, Associate Curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, is that the work is interesting and engaging.