Universes, Drifting: A Temporal Haiku Collection

We capture little moments of friendship, revelation, beauty, and stillness while exploring the brief and transformative form of haikus.

staircase—
constant movement 
of new faces

footsteps rippling
into sound—
the rhythm of raindrops 

a new wash on
my lips, perhaps berry or brown
let’s try again

snapshots of last september
conversations lost
in the lunch courtyard

soft crunch of
autumn leaves
drifting cherry blossoms

during a sunshower
white keys
from my neighbor’s piano

shoreside—
younger me holding
mason jar 

sleek in black and grey
I stretch like we all used to
breathing in the day

I hit the green button 
to hear friends, many miles away,
we squeal on the street

in a charter bus
i watch two geese 
cross the road

by the river creek 
two names fading
on a paper boat 

every month I trim 
my nails—cut
down memory

lemon berry buttercream
16, 21, 24 candles
a flame for one

marking my progress
with pen on paper
my feet on the floor

new mascara bottle—
I watch an eyelash fall
in the bathroom mirror

I click on a flight
picturing the faces
I’ll see at the end

Here & Now: Girls Write Now 2024 Anthology

Do not read this book, unless you want to know what real humans are thinking. Taking poetic license to express things in ways that make AI fear it will be replaced by humans, the stories in these pages reflect the here and now: a collective urgency as the pandemic recedes, the world overheats, wars overwhelm, and the national discourse is conducted in a language far from love. In these pieces, cooking unites families, supermarkets become places of connection and adventure, neighbors evolve into mermaids as the sea levels rise, and every month nails are trimmed to cut down memory. The smallest gifts in life become impossible blessings of gratitude. There is a sense of battle with the norms and an understanding that things are not right, but they will be. This anthology is evidence of a future worth fighting for in which the long tradition of building community through the written word is upheld during the highs, lows, and everything in between.

read here & now