Confident in Classics
Michael, my acupuncturist for five years, recommends a lot of books and shows for me to consume. I don’t watch things alone very much. I like sharing commentary and laughter and terror with at least one other person. I like talking about the thing I watch. However, I read alone voraciously—have for years. I’ve been reading before anyone realized I could. I kept it a secret for a while, just so people would keep reading to me. I take and give many, many book recommendations.
approx. 850 words. cw: description of acupuncture.
Richard Siken Update
I’ve been around fandom communities long enough to recognize patterns. I see repeated song lyrics (which make me smile or grimace, depending on my mood), and I start to recognize standard quotes that spark fanfiction or fanart, and usually make it into fic titles. I’ve found some lovely poems and strange lyricists thanks to epigraphs in fanfic—Daphne Gottleib, Rupi Kaur, Iain Thomas, Lucy Wainwright, Rainer Maria Rilke, Golden Shoulders, Li-Young Lee, Christa Reinig, Meghan Privitello, Ocean Vuong. Among all of these varied sources, Richard Siken comes up often enough for me to remember his name and recognize his poems.
approx. 1,150 words.
