If you're lucky in a life, you get the opportunity to reconstruct it. I am here, surveying my life. I am finding what to make better. I often do this in my home: look around the rooms, find what can be cleaned or tidied or consolidated or organized. Finally I am doing it in my... Continue Reading →
Moved from sexy pop to slow emo somewhere. I'm a complex being. Soulfight – The RevivalistsThe Final Frame – Michael KiwanukaRiver – Leon BridgesKeep the Wolves Away – Uncle LuciusIn Good Trouble – India ArieWhen I Get My Hands on You – The New Basement TapesKansas City – The New Basement TapesTribulation – Matt MaesonThe... Continue Reading →
Over the summer, I met with Kristen, my slam poetry co-coach and we mapped out our year. We talked about what we'd love to have our students write about. Both of us brought up mortality. We're a little morbid like that, asking high school students to write about the end of life. Kristen showed me... Continue Reading →
Every year, there are donuts. Holden and I spent the last of his preschool days together. We spent a lot of time at Dave & Buster's, won a bunch of jackpots, got a lot of stuffies. There was so much joy. Holden turned five. Brandon turned seven. We made art. So much joy. My slam... Continue Reading →
2019 has been a year of little deaths. What I mean is folded up notes of endings shoved into my pocket, one after another until my pocket is bulging. I had a break up that was very hard. Very, very hard. I lost my lover and best friend and confidant and writing pal all at... Continue Reading →
Last Saturday, I got a text from my bakery manager inviting me to an event that would take place four days later. I was told to dress in business attire and given the address to an event hall. I couldn't go, I replied. Ilya Kaminsky was in town that night and I had to see... Continue Reading →
Featured in the final issue of Ink in Thirds, March 2019 Last July, at a friend's prompt, I wrote what July felt like. During this month, I feel myself turn into a concrete slab. I don't make eye contact with people. When I feel an emotion--any emotion--I turn away from it, focus on something that... Continue Reading →
There is this thing people say to divorced women, only maybe it’s just to me: that it will get easier because another man will come along. He will make the money and have the house and insurance and I can hang on his arm and have it too. It is the age-old trope: a man... Continue Reading →
For the last year and a half, I have coached a slam poetry team. I was offered the job the same day I moved into my first apartment after marriage. This job was all I could manage while I finished up grad school. It was just a couple hours one afternoon a week and I... Continue Reading →
We celebrated little things. We read books. We went on adventures. In March, that meant on an airplane. We ate junk. Exhausted, we slept. We played. And partied. I traveled to Tampa and LA and Washington and Oregon and Colorado and Cancun. I walked or ran in all of those places, sometimes stopping to take pictures.... Continue Reading →
holly pelesky 