Welcome to My Blog
There is nothing more I like than yapping. This is a space where I share poems, short stories, and spiels about my life as a displaced appalachian.
Why I’m happy to share my “no’s”
Maps of Xenia
I talk about how my book’s map has evolved, starting with hand-drawn renditions with pencil and paper, ending with my most recent rendition painted on my iPad in Procreate.
Turning the Page
once lost, now found
I wrote this poem in 2016 after my first niece was born. There was a part of me that never wanted to go back home, and as I have aged that part of me has gotten smaller and smaller. She is now 8 and has a younger sister. I dedicate this poem to them. May they never lose their accent, their love of the mountains, or each other.
An Invitation to Subscribe
momma’s windchimes
There’s nothing I love more than the song of windchimes. When I lived at home, the best naps were taken when the windows were up, curtains blowing in the wind, and my momma’s windchimes singing me to sleep.
9/11/2001
It has been 24 years since 9/11. I had been thinking about it a lot recently, and couldn’t get my memories to make sense, so I went straight to a source I knew I could trust—my momma.
conversations with a stranger
These are all real conversations I have had with people after leaving Estill County, Kentucky for college in 2011. Codeswitching is something I only recently learned about and realized that the longer I’ve been away from home, the better I am at codeswitching. This poem explores that.
Momma’s “Vegetable” Soup
quarter life crisis
I wrote this poem sitting at the circulation desk after a particularly hard day at work. I contemplate all the nuance of being an Appalachian in a modern society, feeling like I have one foot in the past.