Face mites
They live in the hair follicles on your face. They are arachnids. They mate, out of courtesy they do not poop (no anus!), and then they die.
“Work-life balance” — the struggle to maintain personal boundaries despite the demands of the place that pays you money. I am entering a season of work where the demands are HIGH and my so-called balance is most definitely lopsided. Working in the evenings is the only way to avoid falling behind. This is not something I enjoy, recommend, or am proud of. I do not like it. It is unsustainable and while I stay ‘on top’ of work, my personal life proceeds to fall into disrepair. Laundry? I don’t know her. A full night of sleep? Who’s he?
A few weeks ago, I had the mental bandwidth to ponder on a poem or mull over a new idea while doing chores or pushing the stroller outside. I was embroidering in the evening, or sitting down with a book. Now my brain space is crowded with a to-do list that is quite long, a nagging urgency to get back to the tasks on the list, and intermittent jolts as I remember more items to add to the list.
I hope that in a couple of weeks, it settles out and I move back into equilibrium. In the meantime, I am keeping my creativity alive and well with my 100-day project (today is day 22!), and a writing class through Redbud Writing Project. A writing class on fiction. I’m so out of my element! But I know it will be fun because I’m taking it with a friend (hi, Casey!) and because I love to learn. I am confident I will learn a lot in this class as a total novice.
Beach
by Arah Ko
You start to notice if you look
at it too close: chips of bone,
pulverized glass, shards of teeth,
whale spine, microplastic nurdles
and grains like clear, dirty seeds.
Of course, the earth
is salted: nothing can grow
here. Evaporated sea flakes
off your shoulder. I catch
it, secret as your smile, the things
you didn’t tell me. You haven’t realized
yet: your naked skin is scorching
raw against this gorgeous graveyard.
100-day project progress report: Day 22 of 100
Currently reading: Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
So happy you decided to do the class and proud of you for doing something out of your element! Hope work settles for you soon too.