do you like to visit the zoo?
ana from peru asks.
i do, i say, and she ticks the box,
then probes further: what do you like best?
i wonder when i last went to the zoo.
All articles filed in language
the word herder
it’s another tough day on the range the bright light of a monitor blasts my face while the harsh glare of fluorescent bulbs beats down on my unkempt hair i strain my eyes and crane my neck trying to spot my quarry amid a dense thicket of display text i’m after a stray comma —…
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The light in the leaves
“Oh, look how beautiful the sun is shining through the trees!” I said, drunk on the last golden light of evening glowing through the golden leaves of the ginko trees.
Read Moreswears
on occasion things happen that just make me want to say damn. that thought would have horrified a younger me. probably. but now it doesn’t. it just makes me wonder where the line is between wholesome and unwholesome words. i can’t think of another word to describe these particular reactions. “shoot” might work, but i use…
Read More“what strange accents burst upon my astonished ear?”
i’ve long been interested in accents and dialects, especially from the british isles. i took a theatre class in that once upon a time, actually. if you’re at all familiar with british dialects you’ll know the folks in yorkshire have a particular, peculiar, unmistakable and absolutely wonderful accent. the secret garden, by frances hodgson burnett,…
Read Moreinfinite, incarnate
the sky is darkened confined, time-bound by a veil of cloud only a single star can pierce through. so sometimes i feel constricted, limited by the selective world of my own mind and long for something someone to shatter my smoke-glass ceiling so i can see the stars. i am very small, 100 trillion cells…
Read Moreand noun you know
hey! boycott that maverick leotard-wearing silhouette — he’s eating a sandwich in a lamborghini, for pete’s sake! oh no, wait — it gets even worse! his wife’s sitting next to him in a cardigan and bloomers, combing the shrapnel out of his sideburns. pull on your wellington boots and rev up your zeppelins, boys; i…
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see with your ears and hear with your eyes
i have a friend who has a lot of mind and a lot of heart. once upon a time this friend said something about hearing God’s voice that … well, made my heart hurt a little bit. i’m reading notes from the tilt-a-whirl by n.d. wilson right now, and the following passage from the chapter…
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bewilderness
have you ever been in the bewilderness? maybe i should explain what it is. “bewilderness” is sort of a portmanteau that i coined during dinner tonight. its contributing parts are “wilderness” and “bewilderment.” “bewilder” means “to cause to lose one’s bearings,” or “to perplex or confuse especially by a complexity, variety, or multitude of objects or…
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say what? — part ii
after i wrote about my predilection for not talking much in certain settings, i thought i should clarify a couple of things: 1. i love people. 2. i love to talk. (imagine that i have grinned.) i mention these two things because — a. i am not always very demonstrative (“ancora imparo,” to explain it in…
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