poetry/ lit

New Orleans, circa 1935. Canal Street, with its bustling shoppers and rushing business workers, chosen to forever serve as the border between the European charms of the French Quarter and the tall business buildings and statue-guarded city buildings of the Central Business District. Even in the midst of the depression, people walk to and fro...
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There is a fellow up in the clouds who looks down on all of us who live here in Louisiana. He doesn’t have a big white beard and his name isn’t God or Zeus – it’s actually Albert... haven't we done this before? The rain pelted down on me as I ran through the walkways...
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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Western world went through a period of preoccupation with wellness. People took up vegetarianism, nudism, spiritualism, and the consumption of patent medicines with whopping narcotic content. If Lydia Pinkham’s couldn’t cure your hiccups, there were spas and sanatoriums aplenty, many of them with a comic...
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There is a fellow up in the clouds who looks down on all of us who live here in Louisiana. He doesn't have a big white beard and his name isn't God or Zeus – it's actually Albert, and he's about as nice a fellow as you're likely to meet. But this sub-entry and...
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America has been having a bit of a nostalgic love affair with mid-20th century excess. In these austere times, when family vacations abroad are open to criticism and our obese nation is somehow supposed to tighten its collective belt, there is something comforting about hearkening back to an era when one could throw on...
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The apartment building smelled of must and lavender, as if somebody had walked through the hallways waving fresh lavender in the air just yesterday but now even that scent was growing old and musty. I and my mosquitoed compatriot, Scape, stopped at the door to the apartment. The buzzing hallway light just above us...
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You don’t have to be a mathematician to appreciate Alan Turing. He was a hero of World War II, remembered for his role in breaking the German Enigma code at the British decryption lab in the gloriously named Bletchley Park. After the war, he made significant contributions to mathematics, chemistry, and the newly-emerging field...
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New Orleans is often considered the most haunted city in the states. Sure, there are the ghosts out there who go “Woooo” when people walk past dilapidated houses – but it’s ghosts like that who give the rest of the ghosts here a bad rap.
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Bookworms are usually thought of as somewhat solitary, socially inept people. Websites such as BookCrossing like to portray books as a bridge between people, a means of connection for those with like minds, all over the world. Read a lot, they imply, and you will find literary company wherever you go. But, is it...
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Last fall, Benjamin Haas, Lisa Flannagan and I created a performance. A part of this performance asked audience members to write out a bit of a story, based on a prompt, and turn it in to us at the end of the evening. One of the prompts we gave was “home.” Out of those...
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