Category: Santa Cruz
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Body of Water
The ocean. The Pacific Ocean. The Monterey Bay. West Cliff Drive. The cliffs themselves. The smell of ocean air, seldom as fresh as poetry pretends. A mixture of acrid salt, sand-heat rising like baked bread, rotting kelp, Pelican dung, and the occasional human off-gassing of Aqua Net, coconut tanning oil, and the incense of semi-legal…
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The Day I Die
Someday I will die. I will die on the beach with its salt scent in my nose. The flies that were swirling orgiasitically upon some rotting kelp will catch a whiff of me and will shift over to attend to my passing. I will die with wet feet covered in sand and with seagulls squawking…
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The “You” Turn
Recently I realized that I spend a lot of time thinking about God and calling it prayer. My preferred mode of prayer is to walk and talk to myself. It’s been that way ever since I was senior in high school. That year, I had Leadership at 7:00 a.m. and then a free first period.…
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Percolating Coffee
Writing Prompt: “Tell me about your relationship with coffee.” Coffee has been there my entire life. I have a scar from when I was age 3 or 4 and I reached across the breakfast table to take something from my sister and I knocked the percolator pot onto my left forearm. My mom rushed in…
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This Grief Is Not A Tool
This grief is not a tool that accomplishesNot a shovel that digs a deeper holeThis grief just isConstantly is Like the cup fallen from my handWhen I swear I was being carefulIt can’t be put back together, though I’ve triedCan’t hold the drink it once heldCan’t bring back the friendship that presented itself to me…
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Autumn
Below are two versions of a song my friend Danny Johnson and I wrote a good while ago, like in 1995. He composed and played the guitar part and I wrote the lyrics and melody. In both versions, you can hear Danny’s voice echoing the words, “Autumn’s comin’ home.” Recently, I told Danny I was…
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My Best, Longest Friend
I met Danny Johnson in 5th Grade. It was recess at Westlake Elementary School in Santa Cruz, California. I was walking on the field near the “Butt’s Up” wall, and I noticed three classmates sitting close together in a triangle. They were taking turns looking at each other and saying “Yuh!” It was a very…
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Potted Meat Food Product
My friend, Danny, and I have a long-standing practice of finding strange, and even gross, foods and sending them to each other. It started when he found a can of something in a grocery store called ¨Potted Meat Food Product.¨ The best part about this particular find was the following actual ingredient: “partially defatted cooked…
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Sister
I’m one of those lucky people in the world that has a sister. Her name is Michal and it’s her birthday today. Here are some cool things about her: She’s organized, but can tolerate mess. (Growing up, her room was a mess, but she tolerated me.) On road trips, Michal likes stopping to see weird…
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