Move it or Lose it
[https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/196/11/E384.full.pdf]
“My daughters convinced me that low-back was the way to go and taught me the power stance to show my confidence about my scar.”
The Elements
Roots and Branches, Volume 1, Federation of British Columbia Writers, November 19, 2023
“Suddenly, we are crushed from behind, spun sideways. In slow-motion, I spiral into the blue and rush of wind. My eyelids slam shut, like those of a doll, as I hit pavement.”
Coping With My Husband’s Parkinson’s Diagnosis
The Globe & Mail, First Person, October 16, 2023
“His forehead is plaid with criss-crossing wrinkles. He knows those weren’t the right words. Is this a senior moment, a brain blip, dementia or the new thing?”
Scoliosis
Journal of Expressive Writing, September 7, 2023
“It is incurable. Hippocrates diagnosed it in 400 BCE and had four grown men stand on a patient’s spine to straighten the curve. Guess what? It didn’t work.”
Wild Mustard
“‘In the old days, they gave you ether,’ says Mum. She is a tiny mound of skin and bones on a stretcher wheeling to the OR. She closes her eyes, hand on an invisible mask. ‘Sniff, sniff.’”
Water World
In the Vale anthology, July 2022
“I have been one with water since the first sinking and white-stone sparkling… I sway from the gunwhale of the kayak, my legs sliding through the slipstream, and I fist-pump the waves as they wash over me.”
The Scenic Route
Juxtaprose Literary Magazine Volume 27, February 2022
“‘Zygoma,’ we sing out, as Dad points to his cheekbone, during our Anatomy lesson. It is the 1950’s. He is a surgeon and we are his clever girls. We memorize the names of muscles and bones."
Stryker
emerge 21: The Writers Studio Anthology, October 2021
“My hospital room is directly behind the nurses’ station, so they can skip over when I press the call button. They squeak in to flip Stryker every four hours.”
Human Touch
The New Quarterly, Issue 158, Spring 2021
“We ride: he drives, I passenge with helmet and Gore Tex gear. We love: Hug on the Fox Glacier, kiss on the Zambezi. We celebrate: Prosecco in the Alps, Pisco sour in the Andes.”
Is This The Ritz?
Sunspot Literary Journal, March 2020
“Big fat truck came out of nowhere, right at us. I sailed straight through the windshield — no seatbelts of course, it was the ‘50s — and came to, lying on the highway.”
Temilola
The Write Launch, January 2020
“I see her still. Her beaded plaits, flashing smile, bubbling laugh. Temilola. She has five other names but this is the one she prefers. Lola for short.”
Zambezi
“Rounding the last bend, we hear singing-whistling-clapping dancers, welcoming us to this country, this river, this campsite. I have come home. This is where I belong.”
Water Therapy
Prometheus Dreaming, December 2019
“All 31 spinal nerves are on fire. I inhale-exhale. Meralgia paresthetica, chronic-sensory nerve-pain razors my mind, seizes my body. Physio says that recovering from the motorcycle-crash … "
Sunnyside Up/Blue Sky/Honeycomb
The New Guard – BANG!, October 2019
“Through the morphine haze, I saw myself thrown into the blue sky, like an egg toss on field day. Eleven bones, one short of a dozen, cracked open perfectly, onto a frying highway, then sizzled, sunnyside up. It happens.”
Zambezi
The Sunlight Press, April 2019
“Nikelwa and Tulani pull me over the side. I gasp, “Siyabonga, Thank-you!” My teeth chatter, my legs shake, my face beams. I fist-pump the cheering paddlers. I didn’t go to the bottom.”
Burnt Toast
The Gaspereau Review, Summer 2001
“He laughed at the end, apparently. ‘Well, that’s that, then,’ I said to myself. ‘Time to take World War Il off the walls in the den.’ Didn’t want any damn minister telling me how wonderful he was, wouldn’t know him if he fell over him.”