Tag: Creative Writing
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Know Their Past, Know Thyself
Dear Readers of TWB, This is an essay from the archives, regarding my parents. For the next few days, my mother is going to take over. She lives with us, is ninety years old, and has been writing her life down on paper. This essay is an introduction to her world. I’ve written on the…
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Why I Read Poetry
When my kids were little, I told them early on: don’t let your school get in the way of your education. Our education system kills beautiful things within us, and one of those casualties is our love for poetry. Poetry. I’m not talking Hallmark cards, or boxes of candies, or any of that shit. I’m talking…
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The Holy Spirit of My Uncle’s Cojones, Part 2
Tony and his Salvadoran-Appalachian family attend his uncle Jack’s funeral, where the mourners aren’t mourning–either the men are running in just to make sure he’s dead, and the two dozen women are lining up to look at their old lover one more time. Here, we learn why Uncle Jack is so important to Tony–we go…
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War Moments: The Orange
I will never forget the man with the orange. Michelle and I were packed in the back of a truck, alongside twenty other hitchhikers. It was six in the morning and already hot as hell. Nicaragua during the dry season–the dust, the winds, the sun that decided to get closer to the region that day,…
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My First Look Down the Barrel
Dear Reader: I’ve been writing about my life in Nicaragua during the Sandinista-Contra war. This is from the archives. It’s one essay of a four-part series on guns, which can be found on The Writing Bull. The man was drunk. He had reason to be. The enemy had come through his small town in northern…