Birth Stories Dad was still filling out the paperwork as I arrived, umbilical cord looped twice around my neck. “I guess she did an okay job,” Mom says, when I ask her to tell the story of my birth. She means the nurse. A…
On the Road’s Shoulder I’m sorry for the table scraps I give the dog when you’re not looking, how I scrape the meat sludge from your sauce plate into the dog bowl, how she laps it up because she knows it is deserved, the…
Morning Glory Emerald vines strangle my Boston porch and crawl up the deck where I stand, alone, clinging to wood. At the neck of the tendrils: a single morning glory, a blushing base. And where the flower widens, opening like an unfurling fist: a…
Why Read? Because we are all on an Odyssey. Because reading a book while waiting for a bus causes the bus to arrive sooner. Because books open doors to worlds. Because holding a well-designed book, feeling its weight, turning its pages is one of…
My First Acting Class “Hi, my name is Natalie King. I am interested in taking some acting classes.” I was looking in the mirror, rehearsing what I was going to say when the acting teacher answered the phone. I am a mirror-gazing veteran.…
Fear Icons Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel 160 pages 21st Century Essays, Mad Creek Books, $13.96 Fear Icons, by Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel, examines how fear is created and soothed in modern society by adopting the personal essay form to explore the lives of public and historical…
In the September issue of Punctuate, we reflect on the power of the hand-drawn images to evoke emotions and a sense of history. We interview Ken Krimstein and review his graphic biography The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt, which deftly captures how highly educated…