All Posts

Lately, I’ve been wondering what my love story will be. How my love and I will orbit towards one another. What song will paint the era of love entering like a lightning strike or if love’s arrival will feel more like an ocean wave knocking me down unexpectedly — a sweet surprise that makes me laugh in surrender. I wonder when I will be rendered stupid and giddy, my red heart melted like candy in the summer, an ooey and gooey mess. On the rooftop of my hostel in Rio de Janeiro

I used to see every person like one single atom, as if we were all beings whirring by on our own respective journeys. I’d think about the person that holds the door for you or the people who smile your way while passing on the street. I thought about all the eyes we hold at the airport. The fleeting conversations where hellos are sewn into goodbye. I theorized that sometimes the atoms meet for only the briefest of moments. Bumping into the other then quickly continuing on the

Sometimes I wonder how many tomatoes I’ll cut in my life and the number of tomatoes I’ve already cut. It’s one of those ordinary life events that feel like a ritual to me. The bamboo cutting board, the steel knife. The tiny seeds and the jelly flesh. I feel connected to humans across our world, past and present. I think about the grandmother in Sicily, the samosa street vendor in India, an auntie stirring a pot of jollof in Lagos. Sentimentalism aside, it was a tomato that ga

I’m bleeding today and I’m remembering my power. I’m bleeding today and I’m remembering my body. These days my eyes are falling softer on my reflection in the mirror. Every now and then, I fall into spells where I betray myself and my body with deep discontent, wishing and pleading it to be different. I think (I hope) I’m coming out of this spell. The bathroom I use has long mirrors that extend from the corner of the intersecting walls allowing me to see myself from all angle

If you could have dinner with any person, living or dead, who would it be and why? I think a person’s answer to that question can say a great deal about them. For me without a doubt, I would choose my great grandmother, Annie Green Devine. She lived her life in the deep woods of South Carolina, under trees that stretched to the heavens and in tune with an Earth that provided harvest after life-giving harvest. She was born in 1901 and passed on in 1979 so our lifetimes weren’

In Brazil they have a saying “ Deus é brasileiro ” which means “God is Brazilian.” I thought this standing in the vivid cerulean waves that dance on Ipanema beach. These waves that are completely unbridled as if tied to some eternal samba beat, their rapid movement creating seafoam that glistens in the sun like grains of sugar. In lieu of a Christmas tree and my mother’s sweet potato pie, I spent this past Christmas on Ipanema beach licking salt and honey off my fingers while

February 7, 2025 10:36 am “So I am in the midst of a new beginning. Like a baby startled, fresh out of the womb, in her mother’s secretions. The shock from darkness into light brighter than ever seen. And I’ve been here before time and time again. A beginning is beautiful but scary and disorienting. I’m not sure how long to give myself or when I’ll know. My bones feel so heavy, my muscles slow, my heart palpable through my chest. I am grateful that it is winter. That I can lo

On Saturday, I realized even the lizard has blood. On Sunday, I buried one. Its little corpse was frozen on the white sidewalk that gleamed in the white sun. His mouth was open. I dragged him by the tail as gently as I could. I gathered leaves and twigs and laid him to rest. I regret not putting a nearby flower on him. Today I went back to do so but I couldn’t find him for he was too well-hidden in the camouflage of foliage. Even the lizard has blood. The rattlesnake too.