occasional posts by risa aratyr
When Jim told me he had cancer, it didn’t much worry me. It was in his fingertip. They amputated the digit at the joint, threw his cancer in the trash. Good riddance. His finger stump was intriguing; even cool in that weird “lemme see your scar” kind of way. Turned out, that wasn’t the … Read more Eulogy
When the oak tree fell last December, it crushed my daughter’s car and robbed the potato vine of its fence. The unsupported lianas have been heaped at the base of the oak tree’s stump ever since — a gigantic ball of brown twine with a few green threads stretched over the top. We cut … Read more In the Heart of the Season
I don’t quite understand how people can justify taking a stand on one side or the other of the fate / free-choice fence. Even if you believe the decisions we make about our lives are ordained, to claim that our reactions to events and situations are likewise and entirely pre-determined and that how we … Read more Symphonic Variations
I didn’t need the iteration. Didn’t need to spend another entire effing day crunched at the computer slogging through endless business emails to realize that changing my job didn’t change anything — I’m still working too many hours for too little pay. Didn’t need to catch sight of the unchopped wood under the … Read more The Portents
As a rule, I’m not partial to discussing current events. Verbal dissection of the situation — political, environmental, social, or cultural — invariably leads me to the conclusion that we’re going to hell in a handbasket and there’s fuck-all we can do about it. At that point, my discomfort level hits critical, my brain shuts … Read more Enough Rope