The Lost Peacock Garden by Megan Baffoe
My first ever tonic-clonic seizure arrived at a beautiful destination wedding in Spain. Thankfully, it had the good sense not to crash...
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- Nov 6, 2022
- 4 min
Symbiosis by Val Brosseau
I am a rubber ball a child has thrown haphazardly across the room, and I am pinballing off of surfaces and corners, painting a jagged...
- Oct 6, 2022
- 5 min
My Pieces Belong to Me by Sara Watkins
The first and only time I got pregnant, I got pregnant twice at the same time because when I do things, I do them BIG. It was a Time....
- Jun 5, 2022
- 7 min
Chronic Illness, Party of One by Shilo Niziolek
I am in the backyard examining the bright orange and yellow underbelly of the heart rot mushroom, chicken of the woods, growing at the...
- May 15, 2022
- 4 min
Up, Up and Away by Judith Morrison
I’m sitting in the waiting room at my nephrologist’s office and staring at the large bulletin board beside the reception desk. The board...
- Sep 21, 2020
- 4 min
I Don’t Know by Lindsey Schaffer
Look both ways before crossing the street, always chew before you swallow, don’t talk to strangers. These are the first basic lessons I...
- Sep 18, 2020
- 5 min
Questions without Answers by Wendy Kennar
During dinner recently, my ten-year-old son Ryan told me his fifth-grade class was learning about communicable diseases. It was a hard...
- May 16, 2020
- 3 min
Radiate Me By Emma Margraf
On the radiation table, there is a moment when I can see the top part of my body outlined by green light. This is not the first time this...
- May 16, 2020
- 9 min
Undiagnosed by Ashley Wylie
When I was 14, I shaved one of my eyebrows off. In an impatient attempt to become beautiful, my hand slipped. After blinking a few times...
- Jan 20, 2020
- 2 min
Stories of Apocalypse, or Survival Fantasies by Audrey Carroll
Advantage: I am a student of the Earth, reading old folklore about which herbs help rheumatism, investigating bird species and their...
- Jan 13, 2020
- 3 min
I Do Not Talk About Spoons by Rachael Dickzen
They say a person with chronic illness only has so many spoons to get through each day. Each action, each sentence, each movement takes a...
- Sep 19, 2019
- 7 min
Before or After the Fall By Kelli C. Trinoskey
Next to my desk at work, there is a picture of me with my three daughters standing in front of stone formations of South Dakota’s...
- Sep 8, 2019
- 6 min
Health in the Hands of the People By Marissa Spear
Point six of the Black Panther Party’s 1972 iteration of the Ten-Point Program clearly states: We want “completely free health care for...
- May 28, 2019
- 2 min
What Haven’t We Tried? By Carol Pierson Holding
After you turned sixteen and your body came into its own and I said you looked voluptuous and your father said you were getting a bit...
- Mar 5, 2019
- 3 min
Bare By Cheryl Boyer
Naked except for a paper-thin gown, I sit in a room like so many others that have stripped me of my identity. Cold. Sterile. White walls....
- Feb 18, 2019
- 9 min
Post Diagnosis: Learning to Live With Your Assassin By Sarah Birdsong
Mere weeks after Hurricane Irma raged her way through Atlanta in the month of September, 2017, I sat on the patient bed of my local...
- Dec 3, 2018
- 4 min
The Lorikeet By Ann Rosenthal
The wild lorikeet sits on the branch outside the library. I read its colors like the gaudy cover of a book. It’s not a native bird. An...
- Oct 2, 2018
- 6 min
Straighten Up, Girl By MacKenzie Dexter
When I was fourteen, my spine was pinned with twenty-two screws and pinched with two ten-inch rods to correct my scoliosis that had...
- Sep 27, 2018
- 11 min
Learning to Cope with Hearing Loss
I lived with my disability for five years before I found it existed. The comments started in high school. When I was in class and a...
- Aug 22, 2018
- 6 min
Equifinality By Sarah Boon
I have a three-inch scar on my left forearm, winding thin and white across my yellow-brown skin. The dog who gave it to me, with his...
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