Author Archives: janishaag

I sit on the rosy pink pottyin the bathroom my sister and I share,automatically look to the right,to the wall above the toilet papernestled in its chrome cave,study the list in my neatestsixth grade printing taped there, a carefully constructed … Continue reading →

Last year, out of town, I missedthe hanging lavender lanternsmorphing the driveway trellisfrom a mess of bare sticksweaving over under, under overinto the annual leafy bower. Wisteria envy has seized melike another seasonal allergy,so I want to soak up the … Continue reading →

You could’ve said no, but you didn’twhen I asked you to heft that melon,sagging like an ancient breastlying in the cold drawer of the fridge, walk it to the big greenbin on the driveway where leavesand lawn clippings mingled withdroopy … Continue reading →

I love how forgiving you are, which is good because I have some news.—from the “Take a Compliment” card set No, I’m not breaking up with you.No, no one died. Well, I’m sure someone did, but not anyone we know.At … Continue reading →

Place moonlight in a bowl.Sleep beside anddream of white flowers. —Sandra Cisneros Allow that creamy liquid,truly moonshine, to dream youinto a place you cannot go awake. Let white flowers cushion you,ones you can’t always namebut surprise you each spring, ones … Continue reading →

that the big thing that’s slitheringjust under the surface is notthere slithering, that thing we don’t want to talk about,perhaps a slimy, annoying, upsetting,creep-you-out thing, has disappeared, kaput, poof! so thatall that’s left is you looking at me,me looking at … Continue reading →

Set up a shop the color of banana.Cram it full of books and a window seat ripe for reading, tucked into a London alleyso you have to search for it, delighted when you find it, reveling in the sweetnessof banana, … Continue reading →

And so it isthe day after Easter,a similarly gorgeous day,warm and dry at long last,spring blasting out of ground and trees and skywith look-at-me insistence. And we do.We cannot look away, nor do we want to,finally released from what has … Continue reading →

for Joe Chan, with thanks and admiration They dive in or burst out of brick buildings,cascade over a meadow, backlight a majesticoak tree at sunset, reflect on the watersof a river called American under a bridgenamed Rainbow. You capture elusive … Continue reading →

And now,the piercing lossof the belovednewly goneeases a wee bit as you walk pasttulips standing atattention, as loose-lipped blossomswaggle a springy hello, dazzling scarlet,happy yellow, softsalmon, flamingpoppies flashingtheir bellies to the sky. They stop you,bend you closer—life eternal rightthere, the … Continue reading →