I met my British husband when I was teaching English in Laos and he was riding a motorbike around Southeast Asia. After two years of long distance dating, we decided to elope in Chicago, where I’d spent my 20s.
Ablution
The rocky banks for the Nam Song are dotted with women, girls, their buckets… dumping content on stones doubling as washboards. Barefoot and laughing — they slap, whack, splash.
I’m Still Coming to Terms With how Much MS has Changed me – And That’s Okay
I can’t jump right now. I can’t run, or even walk quickly. I can’t stand on one foot for more than a second or two — longer on a good day and not at all on a bad day.
A Quiet Love Story Lived and Forgotten
We are not the type
of couple that travels to Serbia
to permanently affix a memento
to Most Ljubavi—the oldest known bridge of love
Metamorphosis
Transformation happens slowly and then all at once
An incremental, painful process:
Wrapping yourself, the little imperfect worm that you are,
Christine Sloan Stoddard with Regina Beach
Christine Sloan Stoddard is a Salvadoran-American writer, artist, and filmmaker based in New York City. An MFA graduate of the City College of New York, she works in disciplines ranging from poetry and playwriting to watercolor, sculpture, mixed-media collage, and film.
The Truth in Three Parts
Objectively,
In all the world, there exists only three species of citrus
Mandarin oranges from the Far East,
Pomelos from Southeast Asia
And from the subcontinent, the beloved citron.
The Cosmos
She freefell into a thousand rosy sunsets
Stretched over every beach her
bare feet has ever trod upon
and straight into a fit of stargazing.
Another Mining Town
It’s in the hills of Appalachia where the banjo sings
And bluegrass’s forgotten gem:
The accordion, expands and contracts
The Kettle boiling away
Lost, Lamented & Found
A Bristolian fox stole my wallet
My track suit pockets have the bad habit
Of expelling their contents on the floor
When I get out of the car
The Longest Day of the Year
It seemed improbable on this rainy Summer Solstice that we’d even be able to get close enough to see it, as all gatherings at Stonehenge were cancelled due to coronavirus. With a bit of madness that comes with three months of feeling stir-crazy, and since I’d never seen the henge in person, we went anyway.
Puerto de La Cruz
Bleary eyed from lack of sleep and still not quite believing I was actually traveling internationally again after such a prolonged lockdown, the first glimpses of La Gomera, the second-smallest of the main islands came into view out of my window. With puffy clouds covering the hills, it looked on first glance like the island was covered in snow.
Uprooted
I followed my heart to Bristol, England after two years of long-distance dating and nuptials at the Chicago courthouse in December. My spouse visa arrived in my passport at the end of February, before anyone knew how strange 2020 would be.
Another Philosopher
Hannah Arendt, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism (among many others), was an expert on power, fascism, and communist revolutions. Raised as a secular, progressive Jew and having escaped Nazi Germany after being detained by the Gestapo for researching antisemitism, she spent the post-war years studying why Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini rose to power, why they were so popular despite their atrocities.
