Voiceless Bliss

Russians wake up for work, wait patiently for their lunch break, wait impatiently for the driver in front of them as their car muffles R-rated insults. Set apart by their lack of a key right – political expression.

Firwood Crossing

Karl Gorton lived near the end of a windswept cul de sac in Firwood. His daughter Colleen, now based in Indonesia, had gone to Bali on vacation and fallen in love. With a man and the place.

A Mother’s Strength

She grabbed her daughter, desperate to hold her small, squirming body down. Both were exhausted, and Haila was unable to remember the last time that she had slept through the night.

French Identity – pt.1

Heavy beat music playing through the speakers surround a stage for a potential DJ set, drinks at the open bar, an all-round young diverse crowd… the energy somehow feels like an alternate Paris.

Liar’s Poker

A raging burst of mendacity clouds the nation’s skies.  A loser pretends to be a winner.  Can’t accept what happened and just let go. The question is who we’ll find consuming his bald-faced lies.

Frozen Sweat

A tent city.  Sidewalks crammed.  A pop-up colony of geometric domes. Gray stretch plastic structures.  All generously donated. Each tagged with an American flag. Stars and stripes on guard duty.

What For Tomorrow

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be, finally, winding down in the U.S.  A mass effort to distribute vaccines and ensure vaccinations across the country has led to a rapidly plunging number of cases.

Sacrificing Himself

What is A Prayer for Owen Meany? It would be easier to say what it isn’t. First and most plainly, it’s a book by John Irving, published in 1989. On a personal level, it’s my favorite novel ever.

A Manufactured Reality

During the pandemic, I stayed in France. Once back in Moscow, however, the contrast couldn't have been clearer. The main difference: France still believes there is a pandemic.

POVs – awaken

POVs is an ongoing segment categorized into different themes that touch upon important talking points of our day and age— same set of questions asked to a diversity of people from everywhere.

“I do” or don’t – Intro

After having taken a queer theory course, I find myself questioning aspects of our lives we take to be inherent. It’s revisiting the vision of the world that asks “why” to every sentence pronounced so matter-of-factly.

“I do” or don’t – pt.4

In a metaphorical sense, marriage is an actualisation of love and the feelings within a relationship. But many people get married pragmatically to prove their love is not only strong, but meant to last.