Category: Uncategorized
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An Ode to Neil Gaiman
**Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, and I started trying to write about how his books impact me, and make me feel. This is the start of what I wanted, almost to write about the fantastical journey his stories take the reader on** I have been reading Neil Gaiman pieces for a long…
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The Anxiety of the Pencil
There it is again. The rumbling and dizzying anxiety rolling through my stomach and gut and twisting what’s already inside. I grab for a pencil. The scratches of tornado swirls the only thing I can draw. Perfect pink eraser tip creating negative space in the chaos I can only spin in.
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“What would happen if…?” Navigating students wanting to have hard conversations
Conferencing with a student during independent reading, one of my students, I think they thought they were being funny, said, “What if a two-year-old pressed a button that set off nuclear weapons?” They sort of smirked but held my gaze to see how I would respond. Another student glanced over the top of their book…
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An open letter
Dear ______________________, I am writing you today because I have no one else to write to. I am also writing you to lament that the art of letter writing has long since passed. No one does it anymore. Only because they feel they have to. Some cordial process one must not abandon. As in the…
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The photographs I didn’t see
The photos all had one thing in common — me in them. I was 5. Then 10. Then 17. I was always smiling, but never with my eyes. When I opened the envelope, not expecting pictures at all (but, then, I remembered a phone conversation with her. She was sorting all of her photographs. “I…
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Water (gun)
You asked me why you couldn’t play with the water gun today. Your eyes looking up at me. You barely able to reach the faucet to fill it up. Eyebrows scrunched, hands frozen under the water waiting for a response. It doesn’t even look like a gun. Not really. It’s electric blue and fluorescent green.…
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I want to write a ghost story…
I want to write a ghost story. I want to write one so deep and rich the bones in your knees crack and snap. Where ghosts scream and call and pull in mouth-gaped silence as they reach for you. Where your heart is bleeding and aching at the sight of the twisting and splitting mists…
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The Forgotten Door
There is a hall here. Musty; red faded carpet. Long. Straight. Harsh lighting. There is a hall here. With doors along the sides. Sometimes locked. Sometimes they appear and disappear. There is a hall here. With a door. Long forgotten. But still etched in someone’s memory. Skeleton key with gold coppered locks. so easy to…
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My Opa in a dream
I dreamed about my Opa last night. In the dream, I knew I was dreaming because my Opa is dead. I was also fully aware I was dreaming. This kind of odd head nod to my subconciousness like a Brechtian moment when I knew I was seeing behind the scenes. But in the dream I…
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Bad Day
I had a really bad day. It’s been a long time since I have felt this low; been this hard on myself. A few hours ago, driving home in snow as it fell sideways (with ice!), wipers swishing, Foo Fighters blaring, and tears prickling, I would have told you all about it. How I felt…
Heidi Allum 